Wooden cable reels in Idaho, north and south

Two Idahos joined by one highway

Idaho's populated south is a long arc along the Snake River Plain, from Boise and Nampa through Twin Falls to Pocatello and Idaho Falls. Its panhandle in the north, around Coeur d'Alene, Sandpoint and Lewiston, looks toward Spokane, Washington. US-95 is the only highway running the length of the state between them, a slow two-lane road through mountains and canyons for much of the way.

For reels, the two halves are separate markets. A pile in Meridian is priced against buyers in the Treasure Valley, eastern Oregon and northern Utah. A pile in Post Falls is priced against buyers around Spokane and along I-90. We would not send a trailer down US-95 to join them unless a buyer in between made it worthwhile.

Idaho Power and the Treasure Valley

Idaho Power sold 15,297,094 MWh at retail in 2024, more than the next four utilities on EIA's Idaho list combined. Its service area takes in the Treasure Valley, where Boise, Meridian, Nampa and Caldwell have grown quickly for years, along with the Magic Valley around Twin Falls. Growth on that scale means subdivisions, schools, warehouses and commercial strips, each wired with underground distribution and building wire.

PacifiCorp, as Rocky Mountain Power, serves much of eastern Idaho. Avista, from Spokane, serves the northern panhandle and Lewiston. The City of Idaho Falls runs its own utility, and Kootenai Electric Cooperative serves the country around Coeur d'Alene. Contractors working for all of them hold non-returnable reels at the end of each job.

Roads, distances and pairings

I-84 runs from the Oregon line through Boise and Twin Falls and on to Utah. I-86 branches east from it to Pocatello, where it meets I-15, which runs north to Idaho Falls and Montana and south to Salt Lake City. In the north, I-90 crosses the panhandle from Spokane through Coeur d'Alene and over Lookout Pass into Montana.

Most southern Idaho lots are a day or less by truck from Salt Lake City, and the Treasure Valley is close to eastern Oregon. Eastern Idaho pairs naturally with northern Utah on I-15. A panhandle lot pairs with Spokane-area reels across the Washington line.

BEAD: a large allocation for the population

NTIA's June 2023 table gave Idaho $583,256,249.88 in BEAD funds, thirty-first among the states and large for a state of Idaho's population. Much of Idaho is mountains, forest and rangeland, so unserved homes are scattered across long valleys and remote towns from the Owyhee country to the Clearwater.

Fiber routes through that terrain are long and broken into many short pulls, and every pull ends with a cut length to re-spool. That keeps up demand for clean 30 to 48 inch empties with drums sized to the cable: at least 20 times its outside diameter for fiber, as NEMA WC 26 sets, and never under 12 inches. A crew in Salmon or Challis needs those reels close by, not shipped from the coast.

Winter, mud and reel storage

Idaho winters are cold across the Snake River Plain and snowy in the mountains and the panhandle. Reels stored flat fill with snow and freeze to the ground, and a frozen-down flange can tear when it is pulled free. Spring brings mud in unpaved yards. Stand empties on their flanges on gravel or blocking before winter, and keep a lane clear for the truck.

Mountain passes on I-90 and I-15 near the Montana line can slow winter loads. A pickup in the Treasure Valley is rarely held up for long.

Writing up an Idaho lot

• Each size as flange x traverse x drum, from the reel stencil.
• A count per size, with reels on their flanges.
• A wide photo, a stencil photo per size, and close-ups of damaged staves, drive holes or arbor holes.
• Town or ZIP, and whether you are north or south of the Salmon River country.
• Loading: forklift, telehandler, dock or none, and the yard's hours.

Footage on a reel: one worked example

Buyers often ask whether a reel will hold their cable before they ask what it costs. The NEMA WC 26 approximation, as printed in Anixter's handbook, is footage = 0.262 x T x (H - C) x (D + H - C) / OD squared. T is the traverse, D the drum, H the flange height above the drum, which is half of flange minus drum, C the clearance left below the flange rim, and OD the cable's outside diameter, all in inches.

Take a 72x36x36 reel with 3 inches of clearance and a 1.00 inch cable. H is (72 - 36) / 2 = 18. H - C is 15. D + H - C is 51. So 0.262 x 36 x 15 x 51 = about 7,215 feet, which matches the handbook's table. With a 0.50 inch cable, divide by 0.25 instead of 1 and the same reel holds about 28,862 feet. Send us your cable's diameter and length and we will run it against the reels we can source near Boise or Idaho Falls.

Buying reels in Idaho

If you need empties, tell us the cable diameter and footage, or the size you usually run, and the job's ZIP. We look for a matching lot as near as we can find it and quote it delivered. A reel lot from the Treasure Valley to a Boise job is a short haul; one brought in from Utah costs more, and the quote will show why.