2. A view of work being done through the frozen Minnesota
River near Belle Plaine, MN.
Harsh weather made for extremely wet and muddy ground
conditions, making it difficult to move equipment.
MYR Group Vice President of Safety Steve Cavanaugh and
MYR Group Safety Supervisor Randy Fettig discuss the
specifics of a blasting operation.
“The Minnesota River crossing at Belle Plaine, MN, had to be
completed on a tight schedule while the river was frozen, and there
was rough terrain going in and out of the river bottom,” said L.E.
Myers Vice President, Larry Schweitzer. “Also, the pole setting and
the foundation installation had to be coordinated due to the unique
design of the foundations.”
According to Construction Manager Wes Nunnery, however, the
toughest part of the job was staying on schedule because “in that
part of the country, wind is the biggest enemy.”
“With 35 to 40 mph winds, you can’t put people 160 or 170 feet in the
air; you have to shut down,” he explained. “At least one day would be
lost every week.”
Besides the heavy wind, there was “quite a bit of snow,” Nunnery
added, and arctic temperatures that stubbornly refused to inch upward.
“We had a two-week stretch when I don’t think we got above 10 below,”
he recalled. “The crews can’t work if it’s 10 below and colder, and when
you add a 30-mph wind, performing the work is next to impossible.”
Despite these grueling conditions, by March, 2014, the rugged crews of
L.E. Myers had safely completed 129 miles of 345kV line and set 873 steel
monopole structures from Hampton to Franklin, MN, about 50 miles
from the South Dakota state line.
“We finished our sections without a recordable incident during the last
year of the project,” said Nunnery. “Our safety performance was excellent.”
During the summer of 2014, the L.E. Myers team went back to the Fargo-St.
Cloud line to install 1,666 vertical “interphase spacers” in order to prevent
“galloping,” a potentially damaging wave-like motion caused by icy, windy
conditions. During the fall of 2014, the crews also installed 600 interphase
spacers, on the Brookings-Hampton line.
Once completed in 2015, the 210-mile Fargo-St. Cloud-Monticello line
will facilitate the movement of electricity from North Dakota wind
farms and Minnesota power plants to Fargo, Alexandria and St. Cloud
and throughout the southern Red River Valley and improve the region’s
power reliability.
The Brookings-Hampton line, which is also expected to be completed
next year, will help meet projected spikes in energy demand in southern
and western Minnesota, as well as the burgeoning metropolitan areas
south of the Twin Cities. The 247-mile line will also provide access to
wind generation in southwestern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota,
helping Minnesotans meet their state’s requirement to generate 25
percent of energy from renewable sources.
Although there were challenges, said Schweitzer, “Xcel was very helpful
in overcoming many of them. Their team was extremely professional and
knowledgeable.”
MYR Group Vice President John Fluss noted that MYR Group has
“enjoyed a decades-long relationship with Xcel and its legacy companies.”
“MYR Group is proud to contribute to Xcel’s success in their CapX2020
undertaking,” Fluss said. “It has been a significant accomplishment for
MYR Group to have also constructed a transmission line of this magnitude
for Great River Energy.”
