Stopped in traffic? It might be part of Duke Energy upgrading lines in Bloomington
Traffic along portions of Patterson Drive and Rogers Street this week had single-lane restrictions while crews were pouring foundations for new, larger electric poles as part of a Duke Energy upgrade for Bloomington's power grid.
Soon residents on the north side of Bloomington along North Dunn and East 17th streets will see crews clearing brush and trimming back or cutting down trees ahead of work on the electric lines along those streets.
Both are part of Duke Energy's Bloomington Reliability Project that began in 2019 to upgrade three of the city's electric substations and provide better electric reliability, according to Liz Irwin, Duke government and community relations manager. The second and third phases of the project are now underway and are expected to continue through early 2024.
For the second phase, preconstruction work has been completed, with trees and other vegetation removed from where new electric poles and power lines will be installed.
"People in the community are probably very aware of it, because of rerouting traffic along Rogers," Irwin said.
Irwin anticipates the second phase, with new poles and electric lines, to be completed by the end of June. Currently, crews are pouring foundations for the larger poles along the route that extends from South Rogers Street, up a portion of Patterson Drive, along South Morton Street and back onto Rogers Street above West Fourth Street. A portion of the B-Line Trail near the convention center may also be closed for short periods to allow installation of the poles.
Irwin said distribution and transmission crews are trying to coordinate their work to minimize the time they spend near the convention center to be respectful of events scheduled there.
More:Duke Energy's upgrade to transmission lines means trees will be coming down in Bloomington
As part of the third phase, work along North Dunn and East 17th streets is expected to begin this month, with crews clearing the path for the new electric poles and lines. Construction of the foundations and installing the poles and lines is scheduled to start in July, Irwin said.
Anyone who wants to check what's happening in their area can go to https://bit.ly/3FqEmj1, Irwin said. "We try to keep that up-to-date. If we have changes to the schedule, it will be shown there."
Benefits of new electric lines, upgrades
Most people will notice only taller electric poles along city streets once the project is complete, Irwin said, but the is actually much broader in scope.
"I'm really excited about how this is going to improve our ability to serve this growing community. It's a continual process," Irwin explained, adding the project will improve Duke Energy's ability to gauge capacity in projected growth of areas within Bloomington and make changes to provide electricity in those locations.
Another benefit is increasing the utility's "self-healing" capacity of the local electric grid, also known as self-optimizing grid (SOG) enabled circuits. This allows Duke to use advanced technology to isolate areas where electric power has been damaged while also rerouting power from nearby substations to restore power more quickly. The technology provides more information to Duke workers so they can better know what needs to be done to restore power.
Currently, about 11% of Duke's customers in Indiana have SOG circuits. By 2029, the company expects to have 65% of its customers on SOG circuits.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Duke Energy upgrades its transmission lines, grid in Bloomington
