Outdoors/Adventure

Long stretch of Powerline Pass trail will be closed for months this summer

Hikers and mountain bikers making the popular trek over Powerline Pass and down to the community of Indian along the Seward Highway will find their way blocked later this summer.

The Chugach Electric Association plans to rebuild about six miles of the 75-megawatt transmission line constructed in 1962, ensuring it's up to current standards and able to withstand ice loading and fierce windstorms that sometimes pound the pass. Work will begin about 4 miles from the popular Glen Alps parking lot in Chugach State Park and continue over the pass.

"We expect a pretty big impact" on trail users, Chugach project manager Andrew Laughlin said.

Intermittent trail closures will begin later his month. The entire trail from Powerline Pass to Indian will be closed in July and August, when construction activity will include helicopters near the trail bringing in large power poles.

Dave Griffin of Alaska State Parks said he expected six power poles to be replaced. "They're working to minimize any disruption to public use," he said, noting that the powerline is in a right of way that pre-dates Chugach State Park, established in 1970.

Work should be finished in October.

Project advisory boards will be posted at both ends of the project to inform trail users.

ADVERTISEMENT

The section being rebuilt is part of the 90-mile transmission line between Anchorage and Cooper Landing that carries power from the Cooper Lake Hydroelectric Project and the Bradley Lake Hydroelectric Project near Homer to Anchorage residents and other customers en route. Chugach's line offers the only way to move power off the Kenai Peninsula to other Southcentral users.

Another 15-mile section through Turnagain Pass was rebuilt several years ago.

Currently, the 115-kilovolt transmission line can move about 75 megawatts of power. Rebuilding the line to 230-kilovolt standards is part of a plan to upgrade the line and allow more energy to be transferred in the future (watts are a measure of the amount of energy that can be transferred at any given moment; volts refer to what level the line is energized – the electrical equivalent of pressure).

Contact Mike Campbell at mcampbell(at)alaskadispatch.com

Mike Campbell

Mike Campbell was a longtime editor for Alaska Dispatch News, and before that, the Anchorage Daily News.

ADVERTISEMENT