Page A-8 - Mason County Journal- Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014
New lines
at Lake
Cushman
PUD: Work begins on
$400,O00project
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natedie@masoncoun corn
Mason County PUD 3 crews began a proj-
ect this week to replace 9,000 feet of under-
ground power lines in the Lake Cushman
area dating back to 1968.
The project began Tuesday, and is esti-
mated to take three to five weeks and cost
$350,000 to $400,000. The lines provide pow-
er to 325 PUD 3 customers.
The lines were damaged Feb. 16 during a
storm. At 6:40 p.m. that night, a tree fell on
overhead power lines at milepost 7 on state
Route 119, also known as North Lake Cush-
man Road, knocking out power to 500 cus-
tomers.
The lines were repaired in three hours,
but lineman had trouble re-energizing the
lines, according to the utility.
PUD and Lake Cushman Maintenance
Co. crews hand-dug a trench to temporar-
ily repair 40 feet of underground cable. The
cable was likely damaged by a power surge
from the tree falling on the overhead line,
said Terry Peterson, PUD 3 director of en-
gineering.
Now, more extensive repairs to the 46
year-old power lines are necessary, accord-
ing to the utility.
PUD crews will replace 9,000 feet, or
nearly 2 miles, of underground power cable
between Skokomish Park and Lake Cush-
man Divisions 2, 3 and 4.
Crews plan to install an additional conduit
for communications and system monitoring
and control. All of the new underground lines
will be in a protective conduit, according to
the utility.
PUD 3 Manager Annette Creekpaum said
the utility is using a generator to keep area
customers' water pumps working at the PUD
3 Board of Commissioners' regular meeting
Tuesday.
Creekpaum said the materials to complete
the work will cost about $100,000, and said
most of the material they need is in stock.
"It's quite a large, expensive work order,"
she said. "I'm sure we'll be successful and
have that fixed in a timely manner."
The lines are in an isolated area, which
could complicate the project, according to the
utility. Much of the material for the project
will need to be delivered to the site by hand
or using all-terrain vehicles, because the
PUD's line trucks are not able to reach the
area.
PUD customers might experience some
short outages during the project, and the
utility recommends that customers use surge
protectors to protect electronics.
For more information, call PUD 3 opera-
tions manager Scott Peterson at 426-8255,
.... : ; ..... ' Photo courtesy PUD3
Mason County PUD 3 and Lake Cushman Maintenance Co. crews hand-dug a trench to
temporarily repair 40 feet of underground cable after a storm Feb. 16. This week, PUD crews
began a project to replace nearly 2 miles of damaged 46-year-old underground power line.
,o . ext. 3233. ' • ..C,%:.w','o','-' and 4%e ca, bleswele afterstorm,:. !6,
Graphic courtesy of Mason County PUD 3
Mason County PUD 3 crews began a project this week to replace nearly 2 miles of underground
power cables at Lake Cushman between Skokomish Park and Lake Cushman Divisions 2, 3
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