Chopper lifting power helps electrical project

A multi-million-dollar construction project on Mustang Island is using helicopters for some eye-catching work on power poles.

Choppers are helping workers remove old wooden power poles and replace them with bigger concrete poles more powerful transmission lines along a stretch of the island nearly seven miles long, according to AEP Texas, the electrical utility.

Helicopters help construction move along by hovering over work sites and unreeling new power lines to workers below, said Andy Heines, a spokesman for AEP Texas.

The choppers also carry away parts of the old H-shaped wooden power poles that are being replaced, Heines said.

AEP uses the helicopters largely in order keep heavy equipment from trampling so much vegetation, Heines said.

"We have to really reduce our environmental footprints in the area, since these are sensitive wetlands," he said. It's yet another use of helicopters in a community that's already abuzz with whirly birds. Coast Guard helicopters patrol local beaches. Choppers from Naval Station Ingleside fly over the Aransas Pass on training missions. Helicopters fly from shore to offshore oil and gas production platforms and back. Corpus Christi Army Depot sends Army helicopters out over Mustang Island on test flights. And at least one business takes tourists on helicopter tours around the island during the summer.

The electrical work is the last in a series of projects replacing old power lines and poles with bigger ones on Mustang Island over the past two years. The work parallels about 15 miles of State Highway 361.

Many of the newer power poles are about 75 feet high. Construction costs total about $1 million for each mile.

Heines said he expected electricity to begin flowing along the new 69-kilovolt lines during the week of Feb. 3-9.

The larger lines and bigger poles are designed to increase reliability and serve more buildings.