Lane Electric set for $20 million of undergrounding

EUGENE: This month the Lane County Board of Commissioners added their support for improved area communications by authorizing a $500,000 transfer to the Lane Council of Governments to support the McKenzie Broadband Intergovernmental Agreement. A staff report on the proposal noted that land-based Internet service is already available on utility poles above ground that are exposed to disruption from natural hazards common in the Cascades such as snowstorms, windstorms, and wildfires. The report went on to add that “an added benefit of this project is that it will be a modern fiber-optic based network. These networks (above or below ground) outperform the existing cable and copper-based networks, and typically drive down the cost of all Internet service offered in a region.”

Last September the Lane Electric Cooperative was awarded approximately $20,000,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant funds to bury electric lines for parts of Lane County affected by the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. Affected areas include power lines that travel up the McKenzie Valley.

After receiving the grant, Lane Electric Cooperative General Manager Debi Wilson said the utility plans to build a more resilient system by undergrounding the majority of its powerlines. She said putting the lines underground mitigates weather effects such as wind, snow, ice, and landslides.

Lane County and the Lane Council of Governments have been working closely with the Coop to leverage installing fiber optic cable underground while the utility trenches are open “to close a critical gap to opening up access to resilient service for businesses and residents within the McKenzie Valley.”

April Matson, member and public relations manager for Lane Electric, said that “as part of this project, our entire line along 126 will be undergrounded.”

The project area will start “just east of Vida, go to Blue River, and extend beyond the substation up to the end of our lines near Belknap Springs,” she said.

Timing for the project has yet to be determined.

Besides Lane Electric, Consumers Power will also benefit from FEMA funding. The coop, which serves areas in eastern Linn and Marion Counties received $1.1 million to help with recovery efforts in areas hard hit by the Beachie Creek Fire.