MEA seeks comment on plans for transmission lines

WASILLA — If you have something to say about the big, tall power lines Matanuska Electric Association plans to build through the Valley’s core area, Thursday’s the day.

A public hearing in the lower level of Evangelo’s Restaurant is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Showing up in person earns you three minutes to have your say. Comments can also be submitted in writing to publiccomments@mea.coop, submitted at the meeting, hand-delivered to MEA or mailed to MEA at P.O. Box 2929, Palmer, AK 99645.

The project is part of what the utility will need to do as it brings its planned Eklutna Generation Station natural gas-fired power plant online. It will require 80-foot power poles, which has caused some concern for people along the routes.

Downtown merchants and city officials in Wasilla were particularly upset, causing a change of course for MEA. New designs have the lines avoiding the Parks Highway as they head into Wasilla. Coming from the east toward the city, the lines would jump north of the highway in the Seward Meridian area, then cross the highway near Sportsman’s Warehouse, heading behind the car dealerships and strip malls there and ultimately terminating at MEA’s Herning substaiton near Knik-Goose Bay Road in city limits.

A second alternative would run much further south, avoiding Wasilla altogether to route lines through the Fariview Loop area, tying in with the Cottle substation significantly further down Knik-Goose Bay Road than the Herning station.

The third alternative would route the lines to Bogard Road and the Shaw substation there, then back down to the Herning substation roughly following the route of Bogard.

The utility prefers the Parks Highway route. At 6.7 miles, it’s the shortest of the three. The Bogard and Fairview routes are 12.7 and 12.1 miles respectively. The Bogard route also doesn’t accomplish all of MEA’s goals with respect to building out its electrical grid.

While it may seem like a project that is nearly half the distance would be significantly less expensive, the land MEA would need to buy up for the Parks Highway route is valuable commercial land. So-called right of way costs are estimated to come in at $5.9 million for that route as opposed to $1 million for Bogard and $2 million for Fairview.

Bogard is the most expensive at $14.9 million, Fairview is estimated at $13.9 million, with the Parks route close behind at $13.4 million.

The original route, the one the city of Wasilla put the kibosh on, was estimated at $9.7 million.