County Supervisors Want High-Voltage Line To Go Underground: Media Report

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Prince William County supervisors are urging Dominion Virginia Power to keep a controversial high-voltage power line out of view, as much as possible.

The utility company is planning to build the 230,000-watt power line from the Prince William Parkway interchange with Interstate 66 to a proposed substation at the U.S. 15 interchange with I-66 near Haymarket. It has proposed five different routes for the line, including two that would largely follow I-66, and three that would split off to the south around Gainesville.

But plans for the power line have drawn fierce opposition from homeowners and residents in the western part of the county. They fear that the six-mile power line’s tall, unsightly steel towers will despoil the area’s rural landscape and drive down property values.

On Tuesday night, the Board of County Supervisors unanimously endorsed the so-called hybrid route for the power line, which would run along I-66 and place much of the line underground, the Washington Post reported.

The vote, however, was symbolic, since the final decision will be made by the State Corporation Commission in Richmond. The SCC oversees and regulates utilities in Virginia, and it has set no deadline for its decision on the power line.

If the line is approved this year, Dominion Power has said it could begin construction next year and complete the line and substation by 2018.