The aging electrical cables that connect Houghton and Hancock will be getting an upgrade.
At last night’s Hancock City Council meeting, a representative from the Upper Peninsula Power Company explained that the cables are now more than 80 years old. There are four that lay exposed across the bottom of the Portage, but only two work.
UPPCO is planning to replace the cables by running them under the Portage via an underground conduit created with a horizontal drilling process. The installation would be isolated from the water, and would include space for electrical cables, along with additional cables, such as fiberoptic data lines.
The north end of the conduit would come up near the intersection of Birch and Sunset on the Hancock side. Equipment would be installed in an underground vault which would not be visible from the surface. Two cement-filled posts would be installed above ground, to prevent drivers from accidentally running over the vault.
To facilitate the installation, UPPCO said that a small easement under land owned by the city of Hancock will be needed from the vault site to the water’s edge.
City Manager Mary Babcock noted that a public hearing will need to be held before the council can grant an easement. That hearing is set for the council’s regular meeting on June 3rd.
