Helicopter to fly transmission line route Friday
Line to be built in Outagamie, Brown, Shawano and Oconto counties
DE PERE, Wis. – A helicopter will be used to capture engineering design information and other data as American Transmission Co. continues to develop two new transmission lines to serve northeastern Wisconsin.
“We are making good progress in preparing for the start of construction on the North Appleton to Morgan project,” said Cliff Van Den Elzen, project manager for ATC. “Flying the route for the 138,000-volt and 345,000-volt lines will provide us with the information we need to safely and sensitively design the transmission facilities.”
The low-flying helicopter, piloted by Brainerd Helicopter Service, will take off about 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 30, from the North Appleton Substation in Outagamie County and fly the 45-mile route to the Morgan Substation in Oconto County. Flying the route is dependent on good weather.
The North Appleton-Morgan transmission lines are part of the Bay Lake Project, a collection of facilities designed to reinforce the electrical grid in northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The $327-million project was approved by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin in May 2015. Construction will begin in 2016 to meet an anticipated in-service date of 2019.
More information about the project, including a map of the transmission line route, is available at atc-projects.com.