KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Chugach upgrades towers on Susitna River
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by Rebecca Palsha
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007
Mat-Su Borough, Alaska - Last summer, two transmission line towers toppled into Dynamite Slough, near the Susitna River.
If it wasn't for the fast work of some electric crews, most of Anchorage would have lost power.
The culprit was flood waters, which eroded the river's banks after two weeks of heavy rain.
Chugach Electric Association is trying to make sure that doesn't happen again, and started replacing transmission towers last month. Company officials say they're bigger, stronger and not going anywhere.
Shawn Wendling, a project engineer for Chugach Electric, flies almost every day from his offices in Anchorage to Dynamite Slough, just beyond Point MacKenzie.
"Every tower we get in the air just brings my smile a bit bigger," he said.
The bigger smile comes for those six bigger transmission towers.
"Should the river expand, the foundations can stand in the middle of the river and still keep the structures up," Wendling said.
The smaller towers that used to stand here toppled over last August when the Susitna flooded its banks.
"In anticipation of further enlargement of Dynamite Slough, we're putting in new foundations. These are 80 to 85 feet deep and larger, 48 inches wide," Wendling said.
It's slow going and expensive -- about $1 million a piece for the six towers -- but Chugach Electric says it has to be done.
"If we didn't do this there is a chance Anchorage would have some sort of power scarcity this summer," Wendling said.
With the upgrade, Chugach Electric expects to remain about the summer's rains.
The upgrades started in mid-January, and the company hopes to have everything finished by March.
