Scrapping an earlier idea to cut through the Long Pond Greenbelt to connect an electrical substation in Bridgehampton with one in East Hampton, PSEG Long Island unveiled its final plan last week for a 69-kilovolt underground transmission circuit that will instead pass through Sag Harbor.
The new transmission line — nicknamed Bridgehampton to Buell — will start at the company’s substation on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. It will head north to Jermain Avenue in Sag Harbor, then cut east to Madison Street. From there, it will go south to Harrison Street, then east to Route 114. In the end, it will pass beneath Long Island Rail Road tracks to the company’s substation on Cove Hollow Road near the west end of Buell Lane Extension.
PSEG plans to start construction on Jan. 6 and to complete it by December 2025, but will suspend work between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Local power bills are not expected to be increased because of the project, Anthony Carullo, the project manager, said at an informational meeting on Nov. 20. The goal, he said, to boost the South Fork’s electrical supply.
Since 2009, the demand for electricity here has grown by an average rate of 1.75 percent each year, and the company expects that trend to continue over the next 10 years, eventually reaching a deficiency of 82 megawatts by 2033, owing to an uptick in local electrical use. (In practical terms, one megawatt powers roughly 700 houses.)
“Essentially, in order to mitigate the overuse or not having enough out here, we have to install a new transmission circuit between our two substations that ultimately just injects additional load into the area,” Mr. Carullo said.
The company said that the project, which has been in the works since 2018, will increase transmission supply in the area while mitigating the risk of damage to equipment and improving service reliability.
Originally, the project was supposed to take a more direct route through the greenbelt, but at public information sessions, the company found out that many people “weren’t too happy about that,” Mr. Carullo said, so “we listened to the concerns, and we changed our route.”
That original route would have followed an existing PSEG right of way in the area, said Jerry Ye, a PSEG transmission engineer. Opponents argued, among other things, that it could have harmed the eastern tiger salamander, which is found in the greenbelt. The old route was shorter and more direct, “but because of the environmental concerns, we opted to change our entire route,” Mr. Carullo said of the decision.
“Obviously, going through the Greenbelt was going to have an environmental impact,” said Christopher Kiernan, a permitting specialist supervisor
Typically, projects follow roads and the public is receptive, said Bill Faulk, a PSEG public affairs manager.
When drafting these types of proposals, Mr. Kiernan said, PSEG comes up with several alternative routes. In this case, the company opted for the second of four alternatives, which included a “no build” option. “This one we looked at as having the least amount of possible impacts,” he said. “Not going through this is a lengthier route, but we would avoid the greenbelt, and any ecological impacts that could potentially happen.”
In an email Dai Dayton, president of Friends of Long Pond Greenbelt, thanked PSEG for “recognizing the importance of protecting this fragile coastal plain pond system and its rare plant and animal species.”
Once the project is underway, construction crews will work primarily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, but only from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the portions of the project on Route 114. The workers move quickly through neighborhoods, Mr. Faulk said, and when they stop in one spot, they will likely be down the road by the next day.
Some night work is planned “to alleviate community activities,” but “no night work is planned for the Village of Sag Harbor,” he said. Those affected by night work will be notified in advance, and those in areas with road shutdowns will be notified two weeks prior.
Most of the work will be done through an open trench method, which is “essentially digging a hole, putting in the pipe, and backfilling and restoring the roadway,” Mr. Carullo said.
