Last Updated: October 21, 2011
American Transmission Company agreed that its work trucks traveling down the section of Siggelkow Road from U.S. Highway 12 and 18 to Pierce Road will be limited to the 80,000 pound weight limit of a bridge crossing Door Creek.
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The agreement was part of a larger road repair reimbursement agreement approved by the Board after it requested weight restrictions and other changes were made by ATC.
The vehicles in question will be transporting materials and equipment being used for a 32 mile, 345,000 volt power line project ATC is coordinating. The new line will stretch from Christiana to Middleton with a small section coming through the Town south of U.S. Highway 12 and 18.
ATC Senior Local Relations Representative Charles Gonzales explained that the Siggelkow Road stretch accessed from 12 and 18 would be used as a secondary route and if used any damage would be fixed at ATC’s expense.
“If we break it, we’ll fix it,” said Gonzales, responding to Town Attorney Connie Anderson’s recommendation that the Town’s road repair reimbursement agreement with ATC state that there be a weight limit considering potential damage to the bridge and the two 90 degree turns that exist along the stretch.
Anderson said she would be fine with the agreement language concerning this if it wasn’t for one sentence she felt was contradictory to preceding language. “At the end it says, ‘the parties acknowledge that certain vehicles that are used may exceed 80,000 pounds.’ So that kind of undermines all the things that come before it. That was the reason it was troubling because there are many statements that it’s not going to and there is one sentence that says we all acknowledge that it could exceed.”
Gonzales said that this language was meant to refer to the 80,000 pound limit of the Siggelkow bridge or any other bridge weight limit.
There was also discussion of the weight spread over the axles of some of the heavier vehicles that might traverse the windy stretch. “All those axles going around a 90 degree turn can do a lot of damage,” said Town Supervisor Mike Kindschi. Gonzales was quick to reply, assuring everyone that ATC would not exceed the 80,000 pound weight limit over the stretch of road.
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Town Chairman Kris Hampton restated and Gonzales agreed to a request made earlier by Anderson that ATC add language to the agreement that it contact the Town before it plans to drive any trucks exceeding 80,000 pounds on Town roads. That way, Hampton said Town Public Works Head Jeff Smith could be on site to see if any damage was being done. “Under those conditions, he (Smith) can go out and watch to see if there is damage. If there is something we can repair it right away rather than having a citizen call.”
The exchange leading up to the eventual approval of agreement to the changes was mostly hashing out the Siggelkow Road issue. Anderson initially stressed the need to remove the stretch between 12 and 18, and Pierce Road while Gonzales argued the need to keep it in as a secondary route in case County Highway AB was inaccessible. While he said ATC prefers to use the state and county roads that are better constructed for heavier loads, having alternate routes in place is also necessary.
“The whistle blows at kickoff and the coach has to make changes when things don’t go as planned,” said Gonzales. “That’s why we have alternative ways of doing stuff. But the basic point of the agreement says, ‘if we break it, we fix it to your satisfaction.’”
The primary route ATC plans to use under the agreement goes from the staging area at Skaar Pit which outlets onto a small section of Natvig Road before coming to County Highway N. Trucks will take N south to westbound U.S. Highway 12 and 18, eventually coming to County Highway AB north. They will then turn onto eastbound Siggelkow Road to southbound Pierce Road, which is still west of the sharp turns and bridge that concern Anderson and Town Board members.
Gonzales, in answering a question from Hampton concerning truck weight recording, said truck weights will be monitored and recorded by ATC’s general contractor MJ Electric. “MJ tracks the weight of the equipment on the roads. That is part of their written construction report.” This is a new practice that Gonzales said they started last year. The report, he says includes the number of trips on roads and the weight of the vehicles used on those roads.
ATC is also working with property owners to ensure that they are okay with the company and its subcontractors doing work that will have to be done on multiple private properties along the span. “When we are done working in the area we will restore the property to the condition we found it to the property owner, said Gonzales, adding that they plan to work on restoration from May through August so the ground has a chance to dry out after the spring thaw. “We’ll probably be long gone by March with regards to real construction work but we want to save the restoration until a time that makes sense.” Landowners will get to sign off on the restoration work which Gonzales calls a “key components, so they are comfortable after we’re gone that it’s the way it was.”
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Gonzales also said that while it was not in the agreement, ATC would abide by the Town’s spring thaw road weight limit requirements.
ATC has contracted with Asplundh Tree Expert Co. to manage the tree and brush removal for the project. Tristate Drilling will manage all pole hole drilling and MJ Electric will oversee the project.
Environmental inspectors and monitors, Gonzales said, will also be on site, to observe. “We have a special plan to deal with the environment in a special way. All the work we’ve done in the state of Wisconsin this particular stretch has the longest and deepest environmental practice applications we’re going to do of any other site we’ve ever done. There is always potential endangered species because we go out there and identify them. That’s why there are inspectors out there. Because we have this written up, the DNR has approved it and they want to make sure that we do what we say we’re going to do. There are checkpoints all along the way.”
Brush and tree clearing starts now and will go on through December. After the path is cut, holes will be dug and the foundations laid, poles placed and wires strung. Atop the poles will be three wires to a circuit and two fiber optic wires over the top to catch lightning and act as a communication line between substations.
The helicopters that were recently in the area will be back between December and March to lay lines in the stretch of the project that includes Cottage Grove. Gonzales said that as that time nears, the Town and landowners near the operation will be informed. “We will send the landowners information that you should expect to see helicopters in the area hovering above the wires.”