WESTFIELD – The Conservation Commission set conditions for a Westfield Gas & Electric Department project to erect a new section of power lines along the edge of Root Road and next to the Brick Yard ponds Tuesday night.
The utility requested approval to erect as many as 15 new 55-foot-tall wooden poles to support a new overhead distribution system between Medeiros Way (formerly Summit Locke Road) and the main trunk on North Road.
Francis Case of the WG&E said the department is establishing the new link to improve service by creating a loop in the distribution grid so that if power service is interrupted in one area, the department can continue to provide service.
Case said that the base of the three poles installed in the Brick Yard Ponds resource area will be fitted with a synthetic socks to prevent “migration of chemicals” used to protect the wooden pole into the nearby wetlands.
Case said that the exact number of poles has yet to be determined depending on the length of the wire span between poles which are buried seven feet into the soil and how that soil supports the weight of the wires carried by the poles.
The department is also replacing existing poles on North Road with the taller poles.
Conservation Coordinator Karen Leigh said the commission has no jurisdiction over the pole replacement, just the installation of the new poles through the resource area but said the commission could ask the municipal utility to install the synthetic socks on two of the North Road replacement poles next to Brick Yard Brook.
Case agreed to that request and also informed the commission that the new pole installation may require crews to trim trees along the pole line to protect the new power lines.
“There is no plan to remove any trees, just trim them back,” Case said.
