United Illuminating’s Transmission Line Project Could Move Forward Despite Opposition

Fairfield and Bridgeport local officials and residents continue to voice their opposition to United Illuminating’s (UI) plan to replace transmission lines along the Metro North railroad in their communities. 

The proposal has been seeking approval from the Connecticut Siting Council, which has jurisdiction over infrastructure including transmission lines, for the last few months. Last week, the council, in a nonbinding straw poll, signaled it would vote to approve the project much to the dismay of local leaders and residents. 

“The people of Fairfield and Bridgeport deserve better,” Fairfield First Selectman Christine Vitale said in a statement. “We will seek out every legal option in opposition to this plan before we accept massive monopoles that will permanently disfigure our historic character.”

Let’s explore the proposal and why there’s been so much opposition to it.

United Illuminating’s Plan

United Illuminating is working on a project that would “rebuild UI’s transmission lines along the 25 miles of the Metro North Railroad(MNR) corridor between Fairfield and West Haven.” 

The project would include about “500 new foundation supported galvanized transmission poles, upgrading of conductor size and installing sectionalizing switches at nearby substations.” United Illuminating said the upgrade project would “enhance the structural integrity and reliability of the high voltage transmission lines along the MNR corridor allowing UI to continue to provide safe, reliable electric service to our customers for years to come.”

The project is broken up into five phases, of which the fifth phase is about a 7-mile stretch between Sasco Creek in Fairfield and the Congress Street Substation in Bridgeport. This is the phase currently in front of the Siting Council. 

The initial proposal, which is projected to cost about $300 million, would have put the poles on the south side of the railroad tracks. However, the Connecticut Siting Council, which is responsible for approving energy projects, told them to use the north side instead.

At that point, local residents were able to get a halt to that project, filing a lawsuit in Superior Court. The judge ruled that the council had approved a project that had not been properly vetted. 

United Illuminating then had to resubmit its plans to the council. The council took a straw poll earlier this summer and rejected the resubmitted plans to use the south side. But then in September, the council seemed to change its mind, much to the concern of local officials. 

Pushback to the Proposal

Local officials and residents in Fairfield and Bridgeport have voiced numerous concerns and taken legal action against parts of the project, citing in particular its environmental impacts, the fact that private property would have to be taken to make the project work, and the monopoles would ruin the aesthetics of historic neighborhoods. 

“Despite overwhelming opposition from residents, local officials, local businesses, preservationists, and experts, the Siting Council today reversed itself, by indicating support for a utility’s recycled plan that will scar Fairfield and Bridgeport’s historic neighborhoods and challenge local businesses for generations to come,” Vitale said in a statement. “The Council ignored clear, viable alternatives, and instead rubber-stamped a proposal that threatens the character, natural resources and economic stability of our Town, and claims 19.5 acres of private property in the process.  We are stunned that the Council reversed its own straw vote taken only three months ago, when nothing has changed in the interim.  This process was tainted.”

Residents and officials have asked for the lines to be put underground, which UI said would cost $500 million more to do. In addition, Connecticut Department of Transportation officials have opposed placing utilities underground in the railroad right of way.

Next Steps

So far all the votes the Siting Council have taken have been nonbinding. The council is hosting another Energy/Telecommunications meeting on Thursday, September 18 at 1 p.m.

This article has been updated to clarify CTDOT's position on the undergrounding of utilities. CTDOT does not support placing utilities underground in the railroad right of way, but take no position otherwise on the undergrounding of utilities, according to a spokesman.