AMHERST — An Eversource electrical substation at 246 College St. is being upgraded to improve service reliability and remove obsolete equipment.
The Planning Board on Wednesday unanimously approved the project, to get underway later this year, with conditions that include the new fence enclosing the substation and facing the road be coated in black, and that residential or commercial debris that appears to have been illegally dumped at the rear of the site be removed by the end of the year.
At the substation, to the east of the building that previously housed Amherst Media, a 1,550-square-foot, 13.8 kilovolt metal-clad switchgear enclosure will be constructed with an associated foundation. The project will bring the substation closer to the road, taking over much of the parking lot. The fence will extend an additional 65 feet toward College Street.
Joshua Lee Smith, attorney for Eversource, said the project is relatively straightforward, with the unnamed electric substation, in operation since 1917, in line for improvements. The main idea is to replace the open air breakers, he said.
Justin Pennington, assistant project manager for Eversource, said the enclosure will be an 8-foot-tall fence topped with one foot of barbed wire, a security requirement. Pennington said new plantings will be going in front of the fence. These evergreen trees will rise 12 to 15 feet.
During the site visit this week, planners noted a main concern was the small dumping ground on the north side of the property. “There’s a significant amount of debris,” board member Johanna Neumann said. She said the garbage there, including plastic bottles, could put the nearby watershed at risk.
Board member Janet McGowan, too, said the pile of debris needs to go.
Smith said Eversource is looking into the history of the residential or commercial items, and how it should be removed.
While board member Jesse Mager said he is worried about moving the “eyesoreness” of the substation closer to the street, even with the evergreen screening, he supported the project after Pennington explained that the open air breakers could have been removed and the equipment kept within the current enclosure, but this would have taken longer and required more work, and more outages.
The best-case scenario, Pennington said, was to tie into the existing equipment. “Replacing the breakers in place would have significantly delayed the project over a year or two years beyond the anticipated duration,” Pennington said.
Coldham noted a significant amount of parking in front of the substation, once used by Amherst Media, will be gone. “At least for me it doesn’t seem that it would be a complication,” Coldham said.
Pennington said the building is likely to eventually be demolished. “There are long-term plans within Eversource to possibly remove the building,” Pennington said.
The project is also being reviewed by the Conservation Commission.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com
