GEORGETOWN, Tenn.­­ – The Tennessee Valley Authority has identified a preferred route for a new transmission line that will provide power to TVA’s proposed new operations center in Georgetown, Tennessee.

The selected route is expected to have the least impact on the area, based on public input from the open house and additional evaluation of other factors, including social, environmental and engineering impacts. A National Environmental Policy Act review is also pending. The review will consider potential environmental impacts of the construction and operation of transmission lines, Gunstocker Creek substation and the operations center.

Details on the project are part of a draft Environmental Assessment posted at www.tva.com/nepa. Public comment is available on the draft EA through November 29, 2019.

The project will require new right of way. TVA is continually working with area stakeholders during the course of the project. TVA will meet with property owners along the proposed right of way to obtain easements for construction, operation and maintenance of the line. Property owners would still own the property and be compensated for the easements at fair market value.

The proposal includes about 5.25 miles of double-circuit transmission line to provide power to TVA’s proposed Gunstocker Creek 161-kV substation. Of this, about 4.25 miles is existing right of way that will be upgraded with one mile of new right of way added.

The proposed power line would begin at TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Plant-Hiwassee No. 1 161-kV transmission line at a point just northwest of the Hopewell, Tennessee 161-kV Metering Station near the intersection of Rabbit Valley Road Northwest and State Highway 60 (Georgetown Pike) northwest of Cleveland, Tennessee. 

The new line would extend northwest for about 5.25 miles (through portions of Bradley, Hamilton, and Meigs Counties) to the proposed Gunstocker Creek 161-kV substation northeast of the intersection of State Highways 58 and 60 in Meigs County.

The new line would be built using double-circuit, steel poles centered on new and existing 100-foot-wide right of way.

TVA is expected to begin easement surveys in fall 2020 and start acquiring easements soon after. Construction of the new operations center is scheduled to begin in spring 2020 and be completed in fall 2023. 

Comments on the draft EA may be submitted through November 29, 2019 online at www.tva.com/nepa, by email at [email protected], or in writing to Anita Masters, NEPA Specialist, 1101 Market Street, BR 2C-C, Chattanooga, TN 37402.

Comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the project administrative record and will be available for public inspection.

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