Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Park Van Ness

Greater Greater Washington reports on the BF Saul redevelopment proposal for Van Ness Square. Dubbed Park Van Ness, this mixed-use development would replace the surface parking lot and commercial building which straddles the east side of Connecticut Avenue adjacent to Soapstone Creek.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Pepco Upgrades in the Area

From ANC 3F:

Pepco is working hard to provide safe and reliable electrical service to our valued customers and to support the needs of our region. As a part of this commitment, we will be upgrading existing infrastructure in areas near Friendship Heights.

Pepco has a three-phase project scheduled to start in your community in the next few weeks (Phase 1). This project involves:

Upgrading three primary lines (higher-voltage feeder lines that carry power to about 1,100 customers in a specific area) to more than triple their capacity, from 4 kilovolt (kV) to 13 kV

Alleviating load from the Harrison Substation by transferring three 4 kV feeders to the Oliver Substation. This work is similar to other 4 kV conversion projects completed throughout the District of Columbia.

We have enclosed a map that outlines the areas in your community that will be affected by this work. Portions of Phase 1 will occur in ANC 3F, Phase 2 and 3 are not in ANC 3F.

Phase 1

In the first phase of this project, we will construct a new 13 kV feeder to allow the transfer of the three 4 kV Harrison Substation feeders to the Van Ness Substation. On the attached map, the pink line shows the location of this new feeder. Pepco will use an existing underground conduit to install about 7,000 feet of new cable. By using an existing conduit, we’ll minimize the area we have to excavate. We also will install one new cable pole on 41st St. N.W., just north of Fesseden Street. This pole will be the transition point between the underground cable installed in phase 1 and the overhead 13 kV feeders discussed in phase 2. Finally, we will construct a new manhole to house equipment near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Fesseden Street N.W. We expect to start this phase in two weeks and take about six to eight weeks.

Phase 2

In the second phase, we will convert three 4 kV feeders to 13 kV and remove the 4kV infrastructure. On the map, the green line outlines this work. To convert the feeders, we will set a new 13kV pole line next to the existing 4 kV pole line. Once the new poles are in place and the pole hardware is mounted, we will install the overhead 13 kV lines and connect them to the 13 kV underground feeder that was extended from the Van Ness Substation. After we energize the new lines, we will remove the existing 4 kV infrastructure. We will need to trim trees to be able to install the new lines. Our arborist is meeting with the District Department of Transportation’s Urban Forestry Administration to identify which trees might need to be pruned or removed, and we will share a list of those trees with the Advisory Neighborhood Commission. We expect to start work in April on this phase, which is expected to take about six to nine months to complete. Field inspections may require changes to work locations. We will provide an update should this occur.

Phase 3

The last phase will be to transfer three 4 kV feeder lines from the Harrison Substation to the Oliver Substation. This work is shown on the map with the light blue line. We will construct new conduits and manholes to house the new cables between these two substations. We expect to start work on this phase in June, and it will take six to nine months.

We at Pepco are committed to keep you updated throughout this project. We’ll dedicate a page on our pepco.com website to provide project details, including work locations, hours, and impacts on parking and traffic. We’ll perform the work as efficiently as possible. Please note that we’ll have to finish work on specific cable sections before moving to a new section, so residents should not expect to see our crews in one location for the entire phase. We would be happy to present these plans to you at an ANC meeting. If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please contact us. This information will also be provided to other impacted Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.