The Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative (CHEC) announced on Thursday morning that their contract crew, New River Electrical Corp, has started work on installing new transmission cables at the Bonner Bridge site.
Moving the cables over to the new bridge is one of the final steps in the Bonner Bridge project, and the work is expected to be complete with the opening of the bridge in roughly a couple of months.
“The cables on the existing bridge were [installed] in the 1990s, and are reaching the end of their lifespan,” said Laura Ertle, Director of Marketing & Public Relations. “So this is a brand new set of cables at the new bridge site.”
The cables are going underneath the bridge via a hanging conduit system, which has already been installed by PCL Construction. From there, crews will pull the cables through the conduit system, splicing sections together to make one continuous connection. Currently, at the old Bonner Bridge, the cables are visibly attached to the side of the bridge.
There may be brief power outages when the final switch is made from the existing Bonner Bridge lines to the new ones, but CHEC will provide ample advance notice before the switch occurs, likely in early 2019.
