Project Summary
To provide for future expansion and redundancy for its local electric system, the city of Mascoutah, Illinois, developed a long-range electric plan that included additional transmission lines from a southside substation to a northside substation near Scott Air Force base. The city initially attempted to work with local landowners to obtain voluntary easements along the corridor but were unable to reach an overall agreement. The city then tried to secure an Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) for the route, but the ICC denied the city’s request in 2019.
In 2021, Boeing announced plans to build a drone manufacturing facility at Scott Air Force Base, which is at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport. This increased the need for the line because the city would be supplying power to the facility. At that point, the city engaged Hanson to assist with a new routing study, public involvement process and landowner negotiations for the new line. Starting with a transparent approach to the process, Hanson was able to negotiate voluntary easements with landowners along the new route without the ICC CPCN process. This allowed the city to meet the in-service date of fall 2023 for the project.
Mascoutah’s future land-use plan identifies the area north of the city, near Interstate 64, as an area of projected development. Electrical demand in the city has risen and will continue to increase with the development around I-64 and MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, making the improvements necessary to accommodate the project corridor’s expansion.
“I would like to say how much the City of Mascoutah appreciated Hanson’s assistance with seeing this project through to completion; after all, it was Hanson that was responsible for securing all the required easements to get us started!” – Larry Linck, Electric Division Foreman, City of Mascoutah
The alignment for the 138-kilovolt (kV) transmission line project begins at an Ameren substation south of Mascoutah and ties into a Mascoutah substation west of the intersection of Illinois Route 161 and Illinois Route 4.
The city purchases power from the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency and retransmits it into the Mascoutah power grid, which includes primary power lines throughout the city that are reduced to residential and commercial uses through pole- and ground-mounted transformers. The 138-kV line feeds the north substation and the city, while the 34.5-kV line provides backup power service.
Hanson’s role on the project included coordinating all public meetings, facilitating negotiations with landowners along the line, evaluating alternative routes with the electrical design engineer, surveying the properties along the line, developing plat and legals for use in easements, developing a market study to establish land values and finalizing easements with property owners.
The project team encountered challenges while working to identify a path through the project study area, given the project history and the reluctance of landowners to give the city an easement. Hanson found alternative paths to avoid conflict with landowners, including using easements the city had in place for smaller distribution lines that could be upgraded for the transmission line. By using a combination of greenfield routes, sharing transmission easement overlap with Ameren and employing city easements, Hanson uncovered the project’s path to completion.