American Electric Power’s (AEP) Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) on Nov. 19 said that it plans an estimated $20m investment to upgrade the electric transmission system in Fort Wayne and Allen County in Indiana through the Eastern Fort Wayne Transmission Line Rebuild Project, which involves upgrading about 12 miles of 138-kV transmission line in the company’s existing right of way (ROW).
The line upgrade will take place between the Robinson Park substation, located on North Clinton Street, and the Allen substation, located off Tillman Road southeast of New Haven, near Maples, I&M said.
The company said that plans call for replacing the existing steel lattice towers with “Breakthrough Overhead Line Design” (BOLD) structures, which, as the company noted, were developed by AEP engineers, are shorter than the existing towers, and deliver electricity more efficiently.
I&M said that its ROW representative for the project, Contract Land Staff, plans to communicate with directly involved landowners to discuss preliminary field work and supplementing current property easements for the safe construction, operation, and maintenance of the line.
As noted in a project fact sheet, construction is scheduled to occur from late 2021 to late 2022, which is also when the facilities are set to be placed in service.
