Firm to design its own changes for moving wires
Another firm is getting involved with the engineering for the proposed high wire corridor from Moran Iron Works to Rogers City.
Michigan Electric Transmission Company LLC (METC), which purchased some of the old Consumer Power lines, has a couple of lines that cross US-23, which may end up being part of the corridor.
METC requested an agreement to perform its own design study to determine where the lines should go.
Mary Ann Heidemann, director of the County Development Commission, told the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners at their recent meeting, ?They (METC) don?t like having other designers or other engineers messing around with their facilities, so they want to design their own raising of the wires. They want to have it done by their own people.?
The design work for the project is being finished up and the project could go out for bid in late January or early February.
THE AGREEMENT, which was approved by the commissioners, would pay METC for the time expended designing the change, and the preliminary estimate has been placed at $3,000, Heidemann said.
The county has been working with Moran Iron Works in securing funds from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation?s community development block grant program.
?To speed things up, Moran will write the $3,000 check to move things along,? said Heidemann. ?They have already paid for the first half of engineering and they are not up to their $40,000 yet.?
Total cost of the project, when it was first introduced, was $440,000, with the state picking up $400,000 of the cost.
The recommended route would have Moran haul large industrial pieces of equipment north on County Line Road to North Allis Highway to Ocqueoc Road, then traveling south to M-68.
From M-68, the freight would be taken to Klee Road, south to Heythaler Highway, and eventually ending up at Petersville Road. There the items would continue to the deep port at Michigan Limestone Operations.
SOME RESIDENTS living along Heythaler Highway, south of Rogers City, are concerned that the corridor will become a truck route.
District 3 commissioner Mike Darga said he?s received more than a half dozen phone calls from concerned citizens. The commissioner also doesn?t believe it?s the safest way to ship the items.
Some of the residents would prefer engineers go back to the original proposal of taking the freight through the M-68/US-23 junction.
Heidemann told Darga to have some of the people calling him to contact her, so she can provide the most up to date and correct information, much like she did for Mike Lynch from the Ford dealership in Rogers City.
?I referred them to call you,? Darga said.
?Well, not a single one has done so,? Heidemann said, which surprised Darga. ?The reason this particular route is being suggested is strictly based on the power lines. It won?t be marked as a truck route.
?NO TRUCKER in their right mind would take the route that is being discussed,
The engineering study of the proposed route is still under way and the other utility firms are working closely with the project engineer.
Discussions have been ongoing with the high wire advisory team as to whether some of the wires crossing the roads will end up under roads.
?The issue really is the expense of putting up a pole or a tower strong enough to hold something up that high,? Heidemann said. ?Also, once you get it up that high, the companies don?t necessarily have a bucket truck that can reach it so they?ll have to buy new equipment.?
Selection of a contractor could occur in March with construction to begin as soon as it warms up in the spring.<