NEW SCOTLAND — After nearly half a century, high-tension electrical towers in the area are being replaced.

Until the end of March, K.T. Powers, Inc. will be replacing 25 of the old structures that carry high-voltage power lines through New Scotland and Guilderland. At a cost of about $200,000 per structure, K.T. Powers of Waddington (Saint Lawrence County), is being sub-contracted by National Grid for the work.

Contractor William Tiernan says the new structures are being installed as preventative measures.
"We’re building a heavy structure, so it will be able to take more ice and a heavier load," said Tiernan, who works for K.T. Powers. "We’re just trying to prevent anymore possible outages."

The old towers were erected in 1958 and the steel has actually begun to bend during strong wind and ice storms, according to Tiernan. The new structures will be able to handle the strong winds and the weight of ice, he said.

The work will have no effect on the power to area residents.
"We’re doing it with the lines energized so"there will be no power outages during the work," Tiernan said, reiterating that customer service will not be interrupted.

Referring to the power lines as 345 KV, which means they carry 345,000 volts of electricity, Tiernan said laborers would work with live wires. The new structures carrying the lines, he said, are thick steel poles.
"They won’t come down in a storm," said Tiernan.
New Scotland resident Bob Shedd wrote the Enterprise editor this week that the wires will be reconnected with a loop called "dead ends" to prevent electrical towers from pulling down other towers in case of an accident.
"Then, if a tower should collapse and start pulling down other towers, the wires will pull apart," he wrote. (See letter to the editor.)

Tiernan says the new structures coupled with the dead ends would prevent such an incident from ever occurring.
"They would just stop once it reached to the dead end and because it’s a much stronger structure," he said.

The towers run from Little Falls to the National Grid substation in New Scotland and help carry electricity from Niagara Falls to New York City.