The $676 million Northeast Utilities transmission project designed to increase reliability and efficiency around northern Connecticut was named the Best Energy/Industrial Project in New England by a national engineering trade magazine.
The Engineering News-Record honored the Greater Springfield Reliability Project for its innovation, safety, and teamwork.
The project began in 2010 and finished in November. It laid 39 miles of new transmission lines between Bloomfield and Ludlow, Mass., installing more than 600 new transmission structures and building 13 substations.
The work came in $40 million under budget, despite major weather events during the construction period including Tropical Storm Irene, Superstorm Sandy, and blizzards in 2011 and 2013.
The GSRP is part of a larger NU effort to build transmission lines throughout the region, called the New England East-West Solutions program. The program also includes the $218 million Interstate Reliability Project in eastern Connecticut, which is expected to be completed next year, and the Central Connecticut Reliability Project, which is still being studied.
