AEP Transmission Line Upgrade Keeps in Tune with Wildlife Preserve
Bird mating and road matting compatible activities in Corpus Christi In 1998, Flint Hills Resources set aside the 130-acre Wildlife Learning Preserve, certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council to protect and enhance the wetlands and wildlife habitat area. Local groups of students and adults utilize the area for education and training in principles of wetland ecology and wildlife habitat management. The Wildlife Preserve is situated among 650 acres of undeveloped buffer land east of the Flint Hills Facility.
–Flint Hills Resources website Just yards from the movement of heavy machinery, wetland noises emerge from the preserve. Plovers, killdeer and black-necked stilts whistle and call. We’re still standing on the mat road that we walked on to get here but are now surrounded by nearly pristine wetlands. A levee looms over our shoulders to the east and salt flats pepper the low areas to the north and west amid ponds, upland brush and grasses. Its hard to imagine that just days before, a 70 ton crane crawled through here attended by crews to install 17 new transmission poles, restring cable and restore power to the 138 Kv lines. This project, called the Lon Hill to Nueces Bay line upgrade in Corpus Christi, and others throughout the Southeast, were made possible by the use of temporary mat roads and work site matting. Mats have been evolving over the last few decades in the oil and gas industry and have gained new status in the utility market as a solution to wetland access. As demand for power has increased, many regional energy providers are upgrading older lines and installing new lines. But today’s business climate requires faster upgrades, fewer outages and often places contractors under strict mandates to preserve sensitive environments. So last spring, when American Electric Power (AEP) began to replace the 50 year old transmission poles from the Lon Hill to Nueces Bay substations, they were faced with the challenge of crossing a protected tidal marsh to construct bases and erect poles at 17 points along the transmission line. After the Corps of Engineers informed the project managers that the levee running parallel to the line could not be disturbed the general contactor, Great Southwestern, determined that mats would be the only solution to the access challenge. “We couldn’t have done the project without mats. Period.” explained AEP project consultant Allen Doubrava. Doubrava’s job was to oversee all the contractors and subs and to make sure the outages were coordinated safely. He received word from the Corps of Engineers and the manager of the Flint Hills Resources Wildlife Learning Preserve that he needed to take special measures to gain access to and operate in the wetlands. “Flint Hills and the Corps told us the only way we could get in was with mats, and once we knew we couldn’t approach the site from the levee, we also knew we were going to have to mat the whole route,” said Doubrava. That’s when two Louisiana companies, Auger Services Inc, of Baton Rouge and SOLOCO, LLC of Lafayette, got involved. Accustomed to working with matting and other low-impact temporary road-building methods in wetland environments, Auger brought in 5,300 mats to cover 6,000 feet of road. SOLOCO supplied and installed the mats, using an additional 46 bundles of lumber to build special crossings. Auger was charged with building the concrete foundations for the utility poles. To compensate for low areas and to keep the surface around the utility poles out of the mud, two layers of mats were used. At a particularly saturated crossing, five layers of mats were installed. Tootie Hoffpauir, project manager for SOLOCO, described the installation, “We could do no excavating, so we blocked up areas to make a level road. All the roads, including several wing-turns were two layers thick. We just couldn’t get by with one layer because of the extremely soft soil and the collected water that came with the tides and rains.” A critical juncture came during the installation when crews had to construct crossings over an effluent ditch that wound its way through the wildlife preserve. Nine rows of 18” x 18” x 16’ timber beams were spaced along the crossing, parallel to the waterway, and then two layers of interlocking mats were assembled across the top. The configuration was able to handle a 70-ton Mantis crane and the accompanying equipment, materials and personnel. The roadways and bridges were completed in 33 days and the entire project took 90 days to replace the towers and string new line. The project finished precisely on time, not withstanding a start date that had been delayed due to weather conditions and time of year. According to Doubrava, “This is a critical time of year because it’s hard to get out there in wet areas and all the while the power demand is increasing. We took a scheduled power outage for three months and finished in time to get a generating plant tied back into the grid.” Often, the land buffering transmission lines offers little more than a right-of-way, but in the instance the Lon Hill-Nueces Bay project, the land itself was a valuable asset, cared for and utilized by local organizations. From a technical standpoint, the project was a success; but to many, whose passion is the flora and fauna of the Wildlife Learning Preserve, the key to success remained in the ability to limit environmental impact and to return the area to its natural state. Lauren Dietz, environmental technician for Flint Hills Resources and Wildlife Preserve manager took a keen interest in the utility project from start to finish. “I’m the common denominator because I’ve been taking tour groups out into the preserve during the entire project. I was very pleased to see the plant life spring back,” Dietz explained. While operations had some unavoidable impact to the area, bird activity and sightings were abundant, too. Dietz continued, “The Black necked stilt was nesting out there and we spotted all the usual species from the Roseate Spoonbill to the Common Egret.” Commenting on the AEP’s challenge in the wetlands, Dietz explained, “They wouldn’t have been able to do anything without the mats. They were a lifesaver. And even in some terms, were advantageous to the birds. Once the mats went down, and we had rain, the water collected on the other side of the tidal marsh – that’s what those birds love,” said Dietz. “Just to share one experience: I saw the Common Egret mating out there one day – which was a phenomenal site.” Threefold success was the hallmark of the Lon Hill-Nueces Bay project. From the critical access over soft soils and an on-time finish, to the preservation of a pristine wetland, AEP and their contractors enjoyed the benefits of blending productivity and profitability with impact-reducing technology. Inevitable increases in power demands and the need to continually upgrade transmission and distribution networks will create a greater need for environmentally compatible solutions to remote wetland and soft-soil access. Doubrava summarized, “Since deregulation, people are placed in a position of being dependent on multiple generating sources and there’s a greater degree of competition in the market.” AEP has remained competitive by employing successful methods from related industries and quickly adapting to change. |
