FEMA project work reaches halfway-mark

By STEVE ODEN
Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative Staff

Repair and improvement work to parts of Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative’s system hit by the 2003 President’s Day ice storm has reached the halfway-mark under a disaster recovery project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Jeff Barnett, a consulting engineer involved with the project, told the BREC Board of Trustees at its May meeting that “we are almost 50-percent complete.”

The FEMA project started in early 2004 after BREC qualified for 75-percent reimbursement on ice storm damage repair and system strengthening. Davis H. Elliott Co. of Lexington, KY, became the contractor; and Barnett’s company, Power and Communications Services of Jackson, TN, spearheaded the line staking and engineering.

Elliott has numerous construction crews on the co-op system this spring and summer as the FEMA project work moves into eastern Lawrence County and western Gallia County.

“At the end of May, we were four miles ahead of schedule,” reported Barnett. Barring “very bad weather,” approximately 16 months of FEMA work remain, he added.

Project milestones include:

Installation of 1.2 million linear feet of new conductor. Setting of 2,200 new utility poles.

Damaged circuits have been reworked from substations at South Webster, Fayette, Windsor, and Scottown.

“We are now working on the Mercerville circuits; then we will move on to Patriot Substation where we have over 60 miles of line to replace and upgrade,” Barnett added.

The FEMA project schedule calls for contractors to tackle damaged lines in the Beaver and Echo Valley areas after Patriot Substation.