As anyone who has tried to navigate Lookout Road and 75th Street knows, construction has snarled traffic and tempers. According to Project Manager Michael Meiggs of BTC Construction, the work, which involves running additional transmission lines to IBM, will help with more reliable power to the whole area.
 
 According to Excel Energy’s website, “Public Service Company of Colorado, an Xcel Energy company, will be constructing a new 2.25-mile, 230-kilovolt (kV) underground transmission circuit between the Niwot Substation, located in unincorporated Boulder County near Gunbarrel, Colorado, and the Gunbarrel Substation located within the City of Boulder. The entire length of the new 230-kV circuit will run alongside the existing 230-kV underground transmission line, all within existing rights-of-way, mostly within 75th Street, Lookout Road, and 71st Street.”
 
Longtime Gunbarrel residents may remember that about 20 years ago IBM needed more power and wanted to build large above-ground transmission lines. After tremendous opposition from Gunbarrel residents to building the transmission towers necessary to carry the lines, IBM acquiesced and buried the lines.

 
The first two phases of the current project have been completed on 75th Street and Lookout Road. 71st Street was closed from Winchester Circle to Highway 52 from Dec. 8 to 18. Starting Jan. 3 through approximately Feb. 18, 71st Street will be closed from Glacier View Road to Winchester Circle.
 
The work on 71st Street will include installing vaults for the transmission lines as well as boring underneath the Boulder Left Hand and Boulder White Rock Ditches. “The vaults,” Meiggs said, “are used for splicing the cable. They are almost 8 x 20 feet, so you have to close the whole road to install them. Similar work was done on 75th Street and on Lookout Road.”
 
Concerns have been raised about the quality of asphalt repaving on 75th Street and Lookout Road. Meiggs said that those issues would be corrected in April.
 
There will be additional work done with minor road closures starting in mid July when Excel Energy will be pulling wires. Meiggs said it’s necessary to park trucks over the manholes to work on splicing the wires together in the vaults.   This final phase of the project will last until October 2011.
 
Excel Energy has a website which monitors construction progress at www.xcelenergy.com/Colorado/Company/newsroom/current issues/Pages/niwot.aspx.
For more information, contact Mike Meiggs at 303-469-0199 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; or Jason Manassee from Excel Energy at 303-571-7759 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it