Unsightly PSEG Substation to Be Shielded From View
The ongoing upgrade of the electricity transmission line at the Long Island Power Authority’s Amagansett substation continues to rankle residents of the hamlet.
The project, which LIPA says will make the transmission grid more dependable in extreme weather, has included expansion of the substation to accommodate a new transmission circuit between the East Hampton and Amagansett substations, as well as distribution poles able to withstand winds of up to 130 miles per hour. To accommodate the work, the site, near the hamlet’s Long Island Rail Road station, was stripped of much of its vegetation in 2013. A chain-link fence, and the installation within that enclosure, remains highly visible to passersby.
Early in 2014, a representative of PSEG Long Island, which manages the grid on LIPA’s behalf, said that the work was expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of that year. Jeffrey Weir, the utility’s director of communications, said earlier this month that snow, rain, and high winds this past January delayed construction. With milder weather, “It’s all hands on deck trying to meet our deadline, before summer,” Mr. Weir said. “We fully expect to do that.”
A revegetation plan will be implemented, he said. “We’re working with the town to make sure anything we do is in prime planting season. We don’t want to put something in and it’s not going to take. We’re looking at all options, working with the town to make sure what we do makes the most sense for them and for a successful planting.”
Joan Tulp, a member of the Amagansett Village Improvement Society and the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee, said those groups are hoping that the town and PSEG Long Island will work with them to shield the unsightly substation from view as well as improve the train station’s aesthetics. “PSEG promised they would screen the way it looks now — the ugly part — by the spring,” she said. “I’m wondering myself what is going on. It’s a disgrace. I don’t see how a few little trees are going to help.