AVALON – Most of the Avalon Borough Council meeting Aug. 26 was taken up by a presentation on the Atlantic City Electric (ACE) Peermont Project which will significantly upgrade the borough’s power infrastructure. Need for the presentation was the utility’s need for an easement from the borough to allow installation of a new transmission pole at the northeast corner of 30th Street and Ocean Drive.
The utility company sent seven representatives to the meeting including technical planners, the overall project leader, and an environmental scientist concerned with the avian protection program.
The need for the overall upgrade, which involved the neighboring Borough of Stone Harbor as well, is the fact that the current infrastructure is near capacity according to the project’s leader Dan Woods.
Much of the current infrastructure is nearing 50 years old and is strained by the island’s growth in demand. In addition, the project allows the utility to employ new standards that will improve service, maintenance, and the infrastructure’s ability to withstand heavy storms.
The project will also improve life for avian visitors with better markings to prevent injury to the many species of birds that annually migrate over the island.
In addition to the issues of aging in the transmission infrastructure, the island’s salty environment causes problems for the current crop of wood poles. ACE’s plan called for replacing the wood poles with galvanized steel ones which stand up better to the environment, allow for increased capacity, and are more resilient in storms.
The pole in question at this council meeting was not a normal transmission pole, at least not of the type many recognize as such. It is taller, wider and its steel composition gives it a decidedly different look.
In order to best accommodate pole 69, as it was designated, Atlantic City Electric wants to move the structure from the street area where the current wood pole resides back on the other side of the sidewalk and onto borough owned property. That is the reason for the easement request.
This particular pole is higher, by perhaps 20 feet, than the steel poles that will be used to transmit power from Stone Harbor to Avalon.
The overall project calls for transmission connections from the Middle Township substation across the bay to Stone Harbor. Then a series of new steel poles will transmit that power north on the island to Avalon where the old substation will be demolished and a new one built.
Work began in the spring of 2015, ceased during the summer tourist season, and will commence again in September. The hope is that the work will be completed by May 2016.
The new substation at 60th Street is being built with a style that the utility firm hopes will “fit in with the surrounding community.”
Once the power lines distribute the electricity to the new substation, they will continue the path of the current distribution system out along Avalon Boulevard to the Swainton Substation. Wood poles along that path will be replaced.
The thrust of the presentation was on the need for greater capacity and the load currently on the existing aging infrastructure. Along with the added capacity comes, according to Atlantic City Electric, greater reliability, the incorporation of new standards, better resilience in storms, an ability to stand up to the salty environment, and even increased protection for the island’s birds.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
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