Cianbro’s First 138kV BOLD Transmission Line

Project Success on Cianbro’s First 138 kV BOLD® Transmission Line

POWER & ENERGY MARKET

n By Zeb Underwood

In September 2020, Cianbro was awarded Best Project in the Specialty Construction category from Engineering News Record’s (ENR) Midwest chapter for the Sorenson-Deer Creek 138 kV BOLD® Transmission Line Rebuild Project. ENR’s annual awards program honors the best construction projects and the companies that build them. The awards are based on how a project performs in the following areas: overcoming challenges and teamwork; safety; innovation and contribution to the industry/community; construction quality and craftsmanship; and functionality of design and aesthetic quality.

The Sorenson-Deer Creek 138 kV BOLD® Transmission Line Rebuild Project was the first 138 kV BOLD® (Breakthrough Overhead Line Design) double circuit transmission line that Cianbro constructed for American Electric Power (AEP). BOLD® is an AEP patented, high-capacity, high-efficiency, transmission line design with a low-profile, compact configuration.

The project covered 35 miles from Huntington to Marion, Indiana. The project included installing, maintaining, and removing over 35 miles of access roads, work pads, right-of-way (ROW), and environmental controls, installing 215 steel BOLD® transmission structures on drilled concrete foundations, installing 35 miles of double circuit single conductor including shield and optical ground wire, removing 199 steel lattice towers, and removing 35 miles of existing conductor and shield wire.

From the very first day on the project, the team agreed that the path to a safe and successful project was through collaboration and effective communication between AEP, Cianbro, the Safety Management Group, and all of our subcontractors. In addition to our project safety kick-off meeting and weekly site safety meetings, our team held quarterly project safety meetings. These meetings focused on effective planning, best practices, good catches, near misses, incidents, last minute risk assessments, and how the team planned to continuously improve our safety performance. Our number one goal was to share safety information effectively with all project stakeholders and implement positive changes to our work practices.

To help deliver the Sorenson-Deer Creek project safely ahead of schedule and under budget, the project team