The Denver metropolitan area has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years, leading to increased demand for reliable electricity. As demand increases, substations reach their capacity and become unable to supply enough low voltage power to meet customer needs.
Xcel Energy’s Lacombe to Barker Underground Transmission Project includes the installation of parallel 230-kilovolt underground electrical transmission lines in the heart of downtown Denver. The team of Power Engineers, Brierley Associates, and Michels Corporation, completed the construction of two 2,100-foot, 14-HDPE pipe duct bundle transmission lines under 20th Street in Lower Downtown Denver by using a horizontal directional drill (HDD).
Aside from the typical challenges associated with underground construction in an urban setting, the City and County of Denver impose no-closure moratoriums of roadways, sidewalks and other Right-of-Ways from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, and on game days during the Colorado Rockies baseball season. These challenges were compounded by urban fill along the alignment, and native alluvial soil below the urban fill.
The team wrote about overcoming these challenges in the recent issue of the Rocky Mountain Trenchless Elevated Journal. Click here to read the story.
