The Water and Power Authority’s multimillion-dollar project to place key electricity feeders and lines underground should be completed by September, historically the height of the hurricane season, according to the utility’s executive director.
At the WAPA board meeting Thursday on St. Croix, Raymond George updated board members on the $12.5-million project, which is 90 percent funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Placing the lines and feeders below ground will make it easier to restore service to the territory’s hospitals and airports following a hurricane or other disaster, he said.
The project, funded under FEMA's "hazard mitigation" program, is to minimize the potential for loss of electrical service to critical sites in the community.
On St. Croix, two contracts have been awarded to place Feeder 4, which serves the Juan F. Luis Hospital, underground, George said. However, while WAPA has plans to bury lines all the way to the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport and Frederiksted, he said, an underestimate will force the utility to tap another FEMA funding source to go west of the airport.
On St. Thomas, WAPA is already supplying the Cyril E. King Airport and the area around Lindbergh Bay, Feeder 5, through recently buried lines, he said. There are plans to install underground transmission equipment on Feeders 11 and 12 to the Roy L. Schneider Hospital and the Hatchette Substation, providing service from Krum Bay to the Vitelco Building and One Stop gas station by the Western Cemetery. "That will pick up most of the commercial district" in Charlotte Amalie, George said.
