I-195 relocation poses big question Is it worth the added cost to bury the electrical lines that scar the Providence waterfront? BY BRIAN C. JONES

ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION lines do few favors for any skyline. Slung from one giant tower to another, the big cables give a mechanical cast to the landscapes that they cross.

Which is why a broad coalition that includes Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, the cities of Providence and East Providence, and a host of community, environmental, institutional, and professional groups — ranging from the Friends of India Point Park and Save The Bay to Brown University — is attacking a 1.2-mile stretch of heavy-duty utility wires draped across the Providence waterfront. The critics want the power lines put out of sight — buried underground and underwater — saying they are among the remaining industrial scars on Providence, as the city continues its transformation from a messy manufacturing center to an elegant cultural capital.

But this transmission corridor, which dates back to 1918, claims something akin to squatter’s rights on the cityscape. So why is a fuss being stirred up now?

The lines have to be moved slightly as part of the $446 million relocation of Interstate 195. The final leg of the expressway, as it comes into Providence from Massachusetts and links to Route 95, will be shifted away from downtown. This will soften the highway’s accident-prone curves, and replace a plain-vanilla highway bridge crossing the Providence River with a graceful arched structure designed to become a Rhode Island landmark.

Critics contend that this creates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hide the transmission system, and that since the cables have to be moved anyway, why not do the job right and put them underground? The Narragansett Electric Company, the state’s largest utility, is arguing against burial, saying simply that an aboveground system is cheaper and more efficient.

Burying the cable system will add $6.5 million to $7.4 million to the cost of the project, company officials say, an expense that home and business customers could end up shouldering through increased electricity rates. Narragansett also makes the case that relatively little will change: the transmission corridor has been around nearly a century, and its replacement will closely follow the path of the old one. In fact, the company says, planned changes will improve the appearance of the system. There will be fewer towers, and the electrical cables will be bundled in a less conspicuous manner.

The foes, however, argue that the power lines threaten ongoing revitalization in Providence — the system of parks, walkways, and graceful bridges installed along two downtown rivers. And that they also will retard the on-going "greening" of the city, including a landscaped park on the Washington Bridge, as it brings the East Bay bike and pedestrian path across the Seekonk River into Providence.

Critics say the power lines will be a drag on redevelopment planned for a 45-acre swath of downtown land freed by the relocation of Interstate 195. And that the lines will continue to overshadow Providence’s India Point Park — itself rescued from scrap yards in the 1970s — now one of the city’s premier waterfront recreation areas, with a sports field, a new playground, and unique views of upper Narragansett Bay. Further, the foes say, the wires also impact an ambitious revitalization planned for neighboring East Providence’s waterfront, where river walks, hotels, restaurants, housing, and marinas would be built on a 300-acre area now marked by oil tank farms and abandoned industrial buildings.

Both sides agree that there’s more at stake than one power pathway.

Underground proponents say the proven success of the city’s downtown Waterplace Park and its associated river walks is due in part to hiding utility lines. Getting rid of the high voltage lines will do the same for the land freed up by the highway relocation, they argue, helping long-range economic development. "The failure to eliminate high voltage power lines through our parks and open spaces in the capital city — given how our environment is changing — will haunt future generations," warns Paul J. Roberti, a state assistant attorney general.

But Narragansett Electric is worried that if it’s forced to spend extra money in Providence, it may have to do the same in other communities. "If it happens here, how do you say, ‘No,’ to all the others," says Frederick L. Mason III, the utility’s vice president of public affairs, "And how do you pay for it?"

Judging the dispute is the state Energy Facility Siting Board, a three-member panel made up of the chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, Elia Germani; the director of the Department of Environmental Management, currently acting director Frederick J. Vincent; and a planning official within the Department of Administration, Robert K. Griffith Jr.

Narragansett Electric had hoped last spring that the board would treat its plan as a relatively minor change to existing facilities and thereby be subject to "an abbreviated review," resulting in approval within only two months. But the first hearing, on June 11, drew 19 witnesses, and four more hearings were held before the various parties agreed to a plan in September that will have the board hold more hearings, and resolve the dispute by early April.

That might not be the end of the matter, since the board’s decisions can be appealed to the state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, a delay in the power line relocation could throw the Interstate 195 project off schedule.

WHAT NARRAGANSETT calls its "E-183 Line" carries 115 kilovolts of power over 16.2 miles, beginning at the giant Brayton Point power station in Somerset, Massachusetts, then west into Rhode Island, ending at a substation on the edge of the Providence River.

In dispute is the final 1.2-mile leg, which comes from East Providence, across the Seekonk River near the Washington Bridge/Interstate 195, onto India Point Park, a nearly 18-acre strip of waterfront land. The power line then runs along the rear of the park, parallel to I-195, and then crosses the Providence River to the Manchester Street power station complex on the west riverbank.

Only part of the line has to be relocated because of the highway project, but Narragansett has decided to replace the towers and lines associated with the two river crossings, because of the age of the system, which had a major upgrade in 1968. The power company contends that the new system, while closely following the current line, will be an improvement. Instead of 15 towers, there will be only 11 — with four towers to be eliminated in the India Point portion.

Further, the company notes, the current system has a mishmash of tower designs and wire arrays. These will be replaced with slim towers, ranging in height from 105 to 130 feet, with three arms from which the wires will be hung.

The company contends that this will improve the visual environment. Further, at their lowest sagging point, the wires will be at least 50 feet above the ground, 10 to 15 feet higher than the existing wires. Because of the increased height and configuration of the wires, they will produce lower electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) at ground level. EMFs are controversial because of unproven suspicions they are associated with childhood cancer.

The cost of this overhead system is estimated to be $1.7 million, according to Mason and other power company officials. Mason says Narragansett will pay $450,000 for the portion not associated with the I-195 relocation, with the rest to be reimbursed by the state Department of Transportation. "The minor shift in the existing transmission line alignment will not significantly impact the environment or social resources identified within the area," Narragansett’s consultants reported in April.

THIS CHEERY VIEW of the overhead project is not shared by AG Lynch — whose office regularly intervenes in utility cases as a consumers’ advocate — and a variety of civic groups, the most notable of which is the Friends of India Point Park. "The relocation of 195 will change the waterfront so dramatically that it will be like performing plastic surgery on the face of the city," David P. Riley, co-chair of the Friends, told the siting board in June. "These proposed power lines would leave a permanent scar on its forehead."

Riley also told the board: "If you allow the proposed transmission wires to be built, you will in effect be saying that there is nothing special about the waterfront, that we need not take our stewardship of it seriously, and that we are free to deface it as if it were any old piece of land."

A relatively recent transplant to Rhode Island, the 61-year-old Riley is a professional mediator, resolving cases ranging from disputes between teenagers and parents, to conflicts between crime victims and perpetrators. He and his wife, Mimo Gordon Riley, an artist, live on John Street, a few blocks from the park. A place like India Point Park is a "spiritual" core of the city, Riley says in a recent interview. "It’s a natural preserve, and the important thing is to keep as much separation of the city and nature as possible. The whole point of a city park is to give people a refuge, a respite from the stress of city life — and that means a natural setting."

The giant electric transmission towers run along India Street, at the rear of the park, then cut across its eastern portion right near a new playground, disrupting that natural setting, Riley contends.

But the critics’ displeasure with Narragansett’s aboveground plan extends throughout the 1.2-mile section of the power line, including the large swatch of downtown land that will be freed up by the relocation. "Our biggest argument is economic — that improving green spaces fosters economic growth," says Riley, who contends the much-praised relocation and enhancement of Providence’s downtown rivers has been helped by keeping utility services underground. "From a big picture point of view, it’s a no-brainer."