Work starts this week in Carroll County on the planned route for the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project. Crews are in the area photographing the proposed path.

The Board of Carroll County Commissioners were notified by Public Service Enterprise Group, the contractor for the project, that crews will be working in the county starting this week, according to a county news release. Crews will be photographing areas to be used as access roads for eventual property right-of-ways.

“The field crews representing PSEG will consist of two standard trucks and four individuals,” the news release states. “They will be in the vicinity of the proposed route to conduct initial field studies.

“These field crews will be working from within the public roads and parks only,” it states. “These initial field studies do not require access to private property and the field crews will not be engaging property owners to request access.”

The county news release is intended to inform residents and does not change the board’s opposition to the project.

“The purpose of sharing this information with the community is to keep everyone informed and does not condone the installation of the power lines,” the release states. “The board upholds the principles of protecting property owner rights, local control and land use and permitting authority.

“The proposed project does not respect any of these concepts,” it states. “For these reasons, the Carroll County Board of Commissioners continue to oppose the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.”

The proposed 70-mile transmission line through Carroll, Frederick and Baltimore counties is on track to be operational by June 2027.

The Public Service Enterprise Group has been contracted to build the $424 million project, which is intended to bring a 500,000-volt transmission line along a 70-mile-long, 550-foot-wide path from southern Frederick County to an existing Baltimore Gas & Electric line in northern Baltimore County.

On Oct. 18, the final proposed path for the project was announced. The path was selected because it would impact fewer homes and buildings, crosses fewer conservation easements, and because it is shorter and with fewer turns, PSEG officials said.

Dawn Shilkoski, a project manager for PSEG, told reporters at an online news conference that the route was selected because it scored highly on social, engineering and land-use criteria. Land-use criteria include minimizing impacts to agricultural and conservation lands, and social criteria include avoiding residential areas and historic sites.

However, officials in Carroll and Baltimore counties and affected property owners reacted negatively to the planned route.

Sen. Chris West, who represents parts of Carroll and Baltimore counties in the Maryland General Assembly, said the route was expected, but is especially egregious because it runs near to power lines that could be upgraded in a process called reconductoring, which would eliminate the need for the project. Residents of Baltimore County who voluntarily put their land into conservation easements, expecting it to be preserved for generations, now face an unpopular use of eminent domain, he added.

“They’re going to take that land and they’re going to turn it into a post-industrial landscape by running large towers with electrical transmission conductor cables across the land, which was supposed to have been preserved forever,” West said, “and it’s a real shame.”

Carroll County Commissioners President Ken Kiler said he is not surprised Route H was selected, but he was surprised with how the route was adjusted. Although the route avoids houses, Kiler said farmland can be just as sacred as a home, and that he doesn’t believe PSEG can afford to invoke eminent domain for the project’s entire route.

“I’m hoping everyone fights them,” Kiler said.

PSEG will hold another public information session on Nov. 13 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Carroll County Agricultural Center, 706 Agricultural Center Drive, Westminster.

Baltimore Sun Media reporter Thomas Goodwin Smith contributed.

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