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East Walton/Bethabara 230 kV Transmission Line Project
Georgia Transmission Confirms Road Route for Transmission Line
to Fortify the North Georgia Electric Grid
After more than four months of studying alternatives, Georgia Transmission Corporation (GTC) confirmed today that it will build a portion of a new transmission power line along a route that the company announced in May.
A route for a new 9-mile 230-kilovolt (kV) line has been under study for more than two years. In response to landowners’ concerns, company officials have considered more than 10 alternative routes in the area of a contested one-mile stretch of Snows Mill Road and Rogers Road.
“Our project team went to great lengths to find a route that was acceptable to all parties,” said Jerry Donovan, Senior Vice President of Project Services. “We have taken into account the input of hundreds of citizens, and in the end, we firmly believe this route is the most viable for connecting these two substations to strengthen the power grid to meet the state’s growing demand.”
Georgia Transmission publicly presented the proposed 9-mile route – including the section along Snows Mill Road – in the summer of 2007. After learning about a conservation easement on the proposed route, the project team worked to identify viable alternative routes that would avoid the conservation area. The alternatives – routed cross country instead of along the road - presented numerous problems, including the division of large properties and a new river crossing through an undisturbed, mature forest. These could not be justified when a roadside corridor was available.
In May, the company announced a return to Snows Mill Road, but across the road from the conservation easement. The project team met with affected property owners to discuss mitigations. The project team evaluated several alternative routes proposed by the property owners. It was determined that none of these were viable because of construction issues, environmental constraints and conflicting opinions provided by property owners. GTC plans to continue efforts with the property owners to mitigate the transmission line.
Additional public open house meetings on the project are scheduled for December 8 from 2:00 – 4 p.m. and 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Bethabara Baptist Church.
The new line from the East Walton Substation to the Bethabara Substation near the intersection of Highways 53 and 78 will fortify the electric grid in northern Georgia, which has seen a surge in population in recent years. Construction of the new transmission line is scheduled to begin in 2013. It is scheduled to be in service by 2014.
Please call Jeannine Rispin at 770 270-7741 for more information.
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