After about two years, the One Nevada Transmission Line project is just about completed and is on target to be energized by December 2013.
Mark Sullivan, NV Energy SR land use consultant, appeared at the regular Lincoln County Commission meeting Sept. 16 to report on the progress of the project.
Another phase will be to take the line on up into Idaho.
Sullivan said all 845 structures have been put up in the three counties between Las Vegas and Ely and have been fitted with the wind vibration helical strakes. “Crews are installing the conductor lines in White Pine County, with about 60 more miles of work to complete,” said Sullivan.
After that, Sullivan said, a few crews will return to Lincoln County, probably in October, to complete about 10 miles of line near the Maynard Lake area south of Alamo that was bypassed at the time because of birds nesting in the towers. “There were several different types of nests, and we try to avoid disrupting the nests, so we just skipped over them with the plan to come back later.”
He said the nests were all empty in July, but the company moved on anyway, intending to return when the project was finished in White Pine County.
About 25 percent of the post-construction and land restoration work has been completed, Sullivan noted, and the remainder will continue through the first quarter of 2014.
Final completion activities in 2014 mainly include clean up, reclamation grading, re-seeding and re-planting activities and demobilization of the contractor’s labor and equipment resources to other work locations.
He said the main focus of the reclamation work has been to ensure roads have good profiles, good drainage and no inappropriate berms. The contractor will be coordinating with County representatives to review and accept roadwork to release reclamation bonds, where applicable.
Sullivan added, the majority of cattle guards are in place; all of the gates have been installed and local ranchers seem pleased.
