The original Pollywood project was developed to investigate the use of wooden veneer composite materials as a creosote free alternative to the treated, northern-latitude, slow-grown pine currently used to support overhead lines. 

The initial phase of the project, completed in 2020, confirmed the promise of such materials and a second phase, Pollywood II, is now required. This project will more fully develop the concept and provide full-sized samples of poles for mechanical and other acceptance testing. Additionally the project will make the necessary preparations to transfer the Pollywood product into full production assuming a successful outcome to the project

Benefits

When the use of creosote to preserve wooden poles is banned there will be a need to find either an alternative preservative or a replacement to wooden poles. Currently all other alternatives such as carbon fibre composites, steel,  aluminium, concrete are costlier than wooden poles. It is believed that a Pollywood pole would be of a comparable cost to wooden poles. 

The initial business case for Pollywood deployment, and based on a reasonable take up of poles across the whole NPg network, gives an annual saving of approximately £2.5m pa after ten years, with the potential for a saving of £17m across the whole of the GB network. 

Savings primarily come from the operational cost improvements in dealing with much lighter poles. The cost of poles themselves is likely to be very similar to slightly more expensive when compared with the current solid poles used for overhead lie support. This cost of poles is in line with what was anticipated at the start of the phase 1 project.