AMHERST — Moving electrical and other utility lines underground from College Street at the railroad overpass to downtown should aid in bringing more net-zero energy buildings and other green-powered infrastructure to Amherst center, while visually improving the north side of the Amherst College campus.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime project,” Department of Public Works Superintendent Guilford Mooring told the Town Council on Monday.
Councilors unanimously approved the request from Eversource to remove existing overhead wires, meaning there will also be a benefit to the appearance of the road that is part of the Route 9 corridor. Plans call for use of an underground electrical duct bank that will run to the Eversource substation at 246 College St., where Amherst Media had previously been housed, and connect to an existing duct bank at the intersection of College and South Pleasant streets.
“This is the first of many we’re going to do to help electrify and improve the services downtown,” Mooring said. “The whole purpose of this is to support the new buildings going in downtown.”
“It’s a very important project that we have going on here in Amherst,” said Mike Kane, community relations specialist for Eversource. “The electrification of Massachusetts requires a lot of work by utilities.”
The project is being handled by the Eversource work center team in Hadley, including Michael Fraga, operations manager. Fraga said the company has worked closely with Mooring to identify locations for burying distribution lines.
“This is a really good project for the town, as well as us,” Fraga said. He added that it will allow feeders from the substation to go where they are needed, that power to Amherst College campus will be upgraded and there will be more ability to serve any load growth in downtown.
“We have a lot of customer requests for new buildings, load growth for electrifying heat pumps and getting away from fossil fuels,” Fraga said. “This will give us unlimited infrastructure, really, for downtown growth in Amherst.”
The company expects to complete the project this
In the next one to two years, Verizon, Comcast and the Five College fiber-optic network will also be using the underground duct banks, but Mooring said grants and other sources of money will be needed for this to happen. Their work will likely take place next year, after Eversource finishes its work. Mooring said there are no cost estimates yet for what the town will contribute.
“We’ll hopefully mush all the funds we have together to come out with a paved road, paved sidewalks, new crosswalks and new lighting,” Mooring said.
Mooring is working with Amherst College to ensure the existing raised street crossings remain.
Utility poles will be removed by Eversource when all users have removed their wires from them. There are no immediate plans for removing poles from any of the side streets, though.
Council President Lynn Griesemer noted the work, which will take place following Amherst College commencement, will be disruptive. “I hope our residents have the patience to get through it,” Griesemer said.
Aaron Hayden, capital project manager for the college, said long-term benefits are power availability to help decarbonization and reliability of the system. But he believes the college will be most acutely affected by the construction, including the delivery drivers making their way to campus.
“We really appreciate the collaboration that has happened between the public works and the college in organizing this project and getting it ready,” Hayden said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
