The long and twisting saga of giant electrical transmission towers in High Point along Skeet Club Road just took another sharp turn – much to the chagrin of homeowners who live in the area.
The NC Department of Transportation (DOT), which controls the right of way for the controversial project that includes the installation of thick, 100-foot high electrical transmission towers that will hold 100,000-volt power lines, has given the City of High Point permission to put the towers in. The DOT did so after ordering the city to put the project on hold earlier this year.
Rick Moore, who lives on Skeet Club, said this new decision stunned the property owners because in his prior conversations with the DOT he received strong indications that the Transportation Department’s decision would favor the landowners who want the power lines buried rather than the High Point officials who contend that burying the large lines is prohibitively expensive.
Recent correspondence between the DOT and High Point indicates that the high cost of burying the power line, as well as some steps High Point has agreed to take to make the poles’ presence more tolerable to the affected residents, are the reasons the DOT was willing to allow the city’s project to move forward.
A letter from Mike Holder, chief engineer for the DOT, to High Point Mayor Bill Bencini, states that the DOT made the decision in the wake of discussions at a Friday, July 15 meeting between the DOT and High Point. At that meeting, the city and the DOT met to discuss the 100,000-volt lines project on the north side of Skeet Club Road.
“At that meeting,” the letter reads, “your staff reviewed the estimated cost of installing 3500 feet of transmission line underground and based on that information provided, it is clear department [DOT] staff underestimated the underground conductor cost. Your staff also presented a plan to reduce the number and height of the poles associated with the transmission line.”
Holder’s letter goes on to state that, “Based on this information, the department agrees to allow construction of the transmission line within our right of way to proceed … Thank you again for meeting with us and for making adjustments to your plan.”
Bencini said this week he was extremely pleased the DOT and the NC Utilities Commission had finally given permission for the city to use the right of way for the towers that he said are needed to enhance the city’s power grid and ensure the reliability of its electric service to citizens.
High Point is unusual in that the city provides its own electrical power. Bencini said that High Point delivers electricity to many, but not all, of the residents. For years, the city has been putting up the giant power transmission poles in an effort connect all of its power substations with 100,000-volt lines – and the erection of those towers along a stretch of Skeet Club Road is the last leg of that giant endeavor.
“I understand that they don’t want the poles,” Bencini said, adding that this was a necessary step for the city’s power infrastructure. “This project has been on the books for 20 years.”
High Point Deputy City Manager Randy McCaslin said the project is important to the city and said efforts are being made to lessen the impact on the Skeet Club Road residents. For instance, some of the towers will be shifted from planned positions to be less intrusive, and other utility lines such as cablevision lines and lower capacity power lines, will be relocated from the north side of Skeet Club, where the complaints have been originating, to the south side.
“All of those will go on the south side,” he said.
He also said the city ordered the poles a year ago and city officials were happy to finally have the go ahead on the project from the DOT.
According to McCaslin, while the city now has the permissions it needs, the contractor has been tied up on another job but should soon be ready to erect the poles.
The estimates for the cost of burying the lines have been all over the place, with the residents arguing it would much less than the $4 million city officials were claiming.
McCaslin said Southeast Consulting of Charlotte had provided an estimate of $4.2 million in costs to bury 3,000 feet of line, and a total of $5.8 million for a second proposal with an additional 1,200 feet was added to that distance. That $4.2 million is much greater than the cost residents have estimated for burying the lines based on what they said was a similar project in the western part of the state. High Point officials said the two cases are not comparable in terms of cost.
McCaslin said the project, as it is, is expensive and that the cable alone is costing the city $650,000.
The matter could now end up in court. For months, residents have threatened a lawsuit against High Point and the DOT if the towers were installed. Moore has said affected property owners are now considering their options in light of the DOT’s approval of the project.
Those residents in a half-dozen homes along the affected stretch of Skeet Club were overjoyed in February when the DOT stepped in and ordered High Point to stop installation of the poles just as city contractors were about to dig the holes. The rights permitting process was complex, the citizens had numerous complaints about the city’s acquisition of the needed permits, and DOT has admitted that at least one step in the process wasn’t handled correctly at the state level – though in the end the DOT gave High Point the permission it needs. Moore said the poles will push down property values down by more than a third of their current values.
Moore said the latest move by the DOT is in sharp contrast to what a DOT official told him a few months ago – that residents would like the outcome.
“I think you’re gonna be happy with what we’ve come up with,” Moore said one DOT officials told him. He added at that time, “They know that burying the lines is the only thing that will make me happy.”
However, now Moore and the other property owners are anything but happy in light of the new development.
