By Alex Malm
During the Oct. 12 Londonderry Conservation Commission meeting the Commission heard an application for a conditional use permit which would allow Eversource to replace poles on 13 miles of transmission lines on the right-of-way.
It was explained by Elise Ward from Eversoucre that in Londonderry there are 249 poles that Eversource will be replacing with steel structures. Currently they have wooden ones.
She also explained that they have 22 that are in wetlands and 68 that are in wetland buffers.
Ward said that wood turtles were observed in the area, and said that contractors will do daily sweeps of the areas they are working on and will remove them from the right-of-way and report them if they find them.
One question that was asked is if they are going to be the same structures throughout.
Ward said that they will all be the same.
“The old are wood, the new are Steel,” she said.
Ward also told the Board that they are going to try avoiding wetlands as much as possible and won’t put any of the poles on any new wetlands.
She said that any chance they get they will try to move them out of the wetlands.
It was also asked if the heights of the poles would be the same as before.
Ward said that they generally would be about the same height. They will also be using existing accesses whenever possible throughout the project, she said.
One question that was asked was if the conditions of the wooden poles was what led them to wanting to replace them.
“These poles in particular, while they are a little bit newer compared to their entire system, are made up of a laminate wood. And through our rigorous annual inspection program we have found that the laminate wood has not performed as we have expected,” she said.
She said that they have some concerns about the current poles and want to do something about it sooner than later.
“We’re being proactive with it,” Ward said.
They will all be one to one replacement, she said meaning they won’t be adding any poles or losing any.
As far as a timeline, Ward said that they have a small list of poles they want to replace before the end of the year, pending on when they get approval to start.
The Commission unanimously approved recommending to the Planing Board that the conditional use permit be approved.
One request that they had was to have as much possible done in the wetlands when the ground is frozen.