A plan to replace nearly 4 miles of 50-year-old underground electric transmission line in Salem and Beverly is scheduled be completed this spring by National Grid seven years after it started, company officials said.
This week, the final sections of transmission cable will be installed under the Beverly-Salem bridge via manholes on Bridge Street in Salem and Congress Street in Beverly. Following this, the remaining light work includes fiber-optic cable splicing, testing, and inspection at all project manholes.
In 2022, National Grid officials said the project would be completed in summer of 2023 and cost about $91 million. The new transmission line is expected to cover 3.7 miles and go through nearly 30 Beverly streets.
Earlier plans called for it to start just over the bridge in Salem, attach to the underside of the bridge, then be routed through several streets in Beverly to connect to a substation near Boyles Street in the Cove neighborhood.
The utility provider began the permitting process for the initiative called the Beverly Regional Transmission Reliability Project in 2018. It’s expected to improve electric service to nearly 50,000 customers in Beverly, Essex, Gloucester, Hamilton, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Rockport and Wenham.
The project first gained approval from the Department of Public Utility’s Energy Facilities Siting Board, before a long debate at the local levels to reduce construction impacts on residents in Beverly and Salem. The Beverly City Council approved the project in June 2022 with added conditions such as the creation of a citizen’s committee.
Although initially forecasted to be completed in 2023, National Grid pushed the construction timeline back as geology, topography, staffing, equipment, and supply chain issues were addressed, officials said.
The work of installing 24 precast manholes and 80,000 linear feet of high voltage cable included cutting and excavation of asphalt roads to install underground conduits, the filling of excavated trenches with concrete to create duct banks, and street repaving work from curb to curb along the project route, National Grid indicated.
The new cable begins at the approved new Waite Street Substation in Salem, connecting to National Grid’s existing substation of River Street in Beverly, and ending at National Grid’s existing East Beverly Substation.
For additional questions, contact the project’s outreach team by emailing us at info@BeverlyRegionalTransmissionReliabilityProject.com or by calling our project hotline at (833) 238-4743.
Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202