“There will be associated construction noise” and “temporary” local traffic impacts, “but no long-term impacts to the residents and the businesses of Aquidneck Island and Portsmouth for this project.””

Jacques Afonso, Rhode Island Energy

PORTSMOUTH/TIVERTON — It’s out with the old, in with the new for Rhode Island Energy.

The energy company has an application before the state Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) to rebuild the existing 115-kilovolt transmission lines through portions of Portsmouth and Tiverton, crossing the Sakonnet River.

Jacques Afonso, Rhode Island Energy’s manager of external affairs and liaison for Town of Portsmouth, updated the Portsmouth Town Council on the project Monday night. “There will be associated construction noise” and “temporary” local traffic impacts, “but no long-term impacts to the residents and the businesses of Aquidneck Island and Portsmouth for this project.”

The project involves replacing the aging wooden utility poles with steel structures, as well as their conductors. There will be no increase in voltage, according to Rhode Island Energy. Afonso also said customers’ bills shouldn’t increase specifically because of the project, despite its $60 million price tag.

“The main driver or reason for this project is to maintain reliability,” Afonso said. “Rhode Island Energy is very risk-adverse. A lot of these, if not most of these, structures are wooden poles. The voltage is staying the same; this is solely a structure replacement and conductor replacement project.”

Most of the existing infrastructure and cables have been in place since 1960, and have deteriorated due to exposure to the elements, he said. 

“A few years ago we had an island-wide outage, and what happened was one of the wooden poles snapped and fell on to the other transmission line, so it took out both lines,” Afonso told the council. “The whole island was out until we were able to remove the broken pole from the existing one, and we were able to turn that one back one. It has happened before. That’s what we’re trying to avoid by replacing the wooden poles with the steel structures.”

The average height of the new structures will be 92 feet, Afonso said. “Some of them will be a little bit taller than the existing structures there now by roughly five to 10, five to 17, give or take. The tallest structures will be at the Sakonnet crossing, which will be approximately 134 feet.”

Council member Keith Hamilton put the matter on the agenda in order to inform residents of the scope of the work. 

“My understanding it’s similar to what they did from Freeborn Street south to Jepson Lane, but I just wanted to make sure that everybody is aware there’s going to be a lot of construction going on through the corridor that leads from Tiverton along (Route 24) down to Freeborn,” Hamilton said.

Work schedule

There are two separate routes of transmission lines. Construction is expected to start on the Tiverton tap line later this month. 

“That will last until the spring of next year,” Afonso said. “And then if things go well with all the permitting — CRMC and so forth — we’re looking to start the main line portion (which involves Portsmouth) of the project in Tiverton later on at the end of this year in December, which will go into 2026.”

Construction will take place during normal business hours, approximately between 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, he said. If any weekend work becomes necessary, the town will be notified in advance, according to Afonso.

Asked by Hamilton whether the work will lead to occasional power outages for customers, Afonso replied, “No sir. Local residents should not see any local outages as related to this work.”

Council member Juan Carlos Payero asked whether the steel structures would be put together on site in modular fashion, or trucked in whole. “I don’t want to envision getting Facebook messages that Boyds (Lane) is closed because we’re trying to fit this massive structure around Mello’s Farm.”

Afonso replied that the towers will come in “sections of two or three, so they won’t be impacting the entire road (with) 90-foot structures going down the road. They will be coming in pieces and assembled on site.”

Abutters along the rights-of-way corridor have all been notified of the work, and two sparsely attended open houses were held in Portsmouth and Tiverton in January. (Council member David Gleason said he was the only resident who attended the Portsmouth forum, although about 40 Rhode Island Energy people were there.) There are about 67 direct abutters in Portsmouth and 105 in Tiverton, Afonso said.

Helicopter alert

Whenever this type of major utility work is conducted, residents can expect to see low-flying helicopters that are needed to inspect the lines. Some residents, however, get paranoid about the helicopters, said council member Charles Levesque, who asked whether they was a way to notify them before such fly-bys happen.

Gleason, who lives along the transmission line in Common Fence Point, said he’s witnessed helicopters actually hovering over people’s houses.

Afonso said “it’s a valid concern” and that he would work with the company’s communications department in getting social media posts out to notify residents.

Gleason thanked Rhode Island Energy for taking on the project. “I don’t think National Grid would have done this, personally. I think their attitude is different than Pennsylvania Power & Light and Rhode Island Energy,” he said.

Public comment

Any residents who wish to submit comment to CRMC on the project application, which calls for altering 548 square feet of coastal wetland and 101 square feet of freshwater wetland, must do so by Sept. 26.

Comments or a request for a hearing may be e-mailed to cstaff1@crmc.ri.gov; or mailed via USPS to: Coastal Resources Management Council; O.S. Government Center, 4808 Tower Hill Road, Rm 116, Wakefield, RI 02879.