Category: Infrastructure
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SCC Examiner Recommends Shorter Transmission Line Towers for Augusta
Dominion Energy wants to rebuild 17.7 miles of a 500 kV power line through Augusta County to meet the electricity load of its western Virginia customers, and as long as it’s rebuilding the line, increase the height to accommodate an additional 230 kV line should the need for it ever arise. Building a double-circuit structure…
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Embrace the Scooter Revolution
Bird, the Uber of the electric scooter world, has deployed its first 50 scooters in Virginia — in Arlington County, to be specific. Arlington has no official policy regarding electric scooters, and Bird placed its black-and-white scooters without county permission. Whether that becomes a problem remains to be seen. โWe will be having discussions with…
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Another Warning of Sea-Level Rise
By 2030, $838 million worth of residential property in Virginia is at risk of being chronically inundated by high tides caused by rising sea levels, directly affecting more than 6,000 people and $8 million in property taxes, according to a new report by the Union for Concerned Scientists. The definition of “chronic” inundation is 26…
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Visual Impacts and Transmission Lines
Last week the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia rejected a last-ditch appeal by the National Parks Conservation Association and allied groups to blockย construction of the controversial high-voltage transmission line across the James River near Jamestown. Dominion Energy Virginia had embarked upon preliminary construction in February after winning a U.S. Army Corps…
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5G Wireless: Build, Baby, Build!
The latest wave of wireless innovation is upon us — fifth generation wireless, otherwise known as 5G. The technology will multiply download speeds by 10 times or more, allowing wireless carriers to compete with cable companies for high-speed Internet access. As former FCC trade commissioner Robert McDowell writes in the Wall Street Journal today: 5G…
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Noooooooooo! Not another Cville Bypass!
State Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, has filed a resolution and budget amendment to study building an eastern bypass around U.S. 29 around Charlottesville, reports the Daily Progress. During the McDonnell administration, Charlottesville residents managed to kill a proposed $230 million western bypass around the city in favor of making extensive improvements to U.S. 29 itself.…
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Virginia’s Top 10 Stories (Told and Untold) of the Year
Phew! I finally made it through the all-consuming Christmas season, and I’m still alive to tell the tale. Christmas is a wonderful but grueling time of year for the Bacon family, marked by numerous feasts, expanding waistlines, excessive gift giving, shrinking bank accounts, and considerable out-of-town travel to distant relatives. But I’m back in the…
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Water Board Gives Atlantic Coast Pipeline Conditional Approval
In a 4 to 3 vote, the State Water Control Board gave a provisional water-quality certification for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline today, but added a big conditionย reportsย WHSV television: The permit won’t take effect until several additional studies are reviewed and approved by the Department of Environmental Quality. Dominion Energy, managing partner of the ACP, is…
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ACP Foes, Supporters Contend in ACP Environmental Hearing
After issuing a water-quality certification for the Mountain Valley Pipeline last week, the State Water Control Board held a public hearing today to consider a comparable certification for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). Public comment this morning tended to focus on the question of whether new Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) rules designed to cover…
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Atlantic Coast Pipeline Inks Labor Contracts
Now that the State Water Control Board has approved water-quality permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the odds look exceedingly good that the board will approve comparable permits for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) as well.ย Indeed, state regulatory approval looks like such a lock that the ACP has signed project labor agreements with four…
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Broadband Boondoggles in Southwest Virginia
Throughout the Central Appalachian region — Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky — community leaders have a keen understanding that they must find new industries to replace coal. And there is a near universal conviction that any hope to diversify local economies requires high-bandwidth connections to the outside world. This conviction has led to a series…
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Eco-Districts as Competitive Advantage for Edge Cities
๏ปฟ Speaking at a TedxTysons conference, my friend Dan Slone describes his vision for eco-districts in edge cities. Eco-districts integrate urban farming, renewable energy, microgrids, water recycling and even wildlife habitat with a walkable, mixed-use built environment to create resiliency and business continuity in the face of natural disasters and social upheaval.
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Call Before You Friggin’ Dig!
What’s Dominion’s slogan? “Call before you dig.” Well, pay attention people, and call before you friggin’ dig! Some lame brain failed to call before he dug today, and he knocked out the power for much of my neighborhood, including me, for four hours. Thanks a lot, dude!
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How to Build Strong, Resilient Cities and Towns
Cities and counties across the United States are experiencing chronic fiscal stress, and the reason has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats and everything to do with what Chuck Marohn calls the “growth Ponzi scheme.” “Why are cities going broke?” he asked at a forum hosted by the Partnership for Smarter Growth, Coalition for…
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A 40-Year Lease on Life for Transmission Tower Foundations
In 1968 Dominion Energy Virginia erected a series of 18 towers across the James River to carry two transmission lines from south of the river to points in Newport News. The company built the tower foundations with marine-grade, corrosion-resistant steel that was billed to last for decades. By the 1990s, however, it was evident that…