Following more than two years of construction by the co-owners – ATC, ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative – the eastern half of the 102-mile Cardinal-Hickory Creek Transmission Line Project has been placed in service. This segment of the line in Wisconsin, built and operated by ATC from the new Hill Valley Substation near Montfort to the Cardinal Substation near Middleton, became operational on Dec. 7.
The majority of the new 345-kV Cardinal-Hickory Creek Transmission line in Wisconsin – more than 95% – was co-located with existing infrastructure rights-of-way like roads, railroads and transmission lines. Throughout the project, the co-owner utilities strived to avoid, minimize and mitigate environmental impact through best management practices, including restoration of any areas affected by construction activities.
“After more than a decade of work including ample opportunities for public input, robust regulatory and environmental review, and construction, we are pleased the eastern segment of the Cardinal-Hickory Creek line has been placed in service. This allows the project to begin to provide numerous benefits for electric consumers,” said ATC Project Manager Jake Valentine. “We are especially grateful for the support of the landowners and local officials along the route who made this project possible, along with our construction crews for safely building the line.”
While litigation delayed some of the work of the federal agencies involved in the project, the favorable July 19 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to reverse and vacate the judgment of the Federal District Court cleared the way for the agencies to work on remaining authorizations. Since then, the co-owners of the Cardinal-Hickory Creek Transmission Line Project have continued to work closely with the federal agencies to support their final authorizations to allow for project completion.
The co-owners expect that construction on the western half of the project being built and operated by ITC Midwest – from the Hickory Creek Substation in Dubuque County, Iowa, to the Hill Valley Substation – will be completed and placed in service by June 2024. In fact, this entire segment is finished except for approximately 1.5 miles of the line, which extends from a location near the Nelson Dewey Substation westward across the Mississippi River to near the Turkey River Substation in Clayton County, Iowa.
“We look forward to constructing the short segment yet to be completed and getting the entire Cardinal-Hickory Creek line in service by June 2024,” said ITC Midwest Project Manager Shawn Mathis. “Once the line is energized from ITC Midwest’s Hickory Creek Substation in Iowa to ATC’s Cardinal Substation in Wisconsin, electric consumers will receive the full benefits of this major infrastructure project, including access to lower-cost generation, improved reliability and flexibility of the region’s transmission system, and support for the interconnection of renewable generation across the Upper Midwest.”
The Cardinal-Hickory Creek Transmission Line Project will provide a vital pathway to help ensure the cost-effective, renewable and reliable energy that consumers are seeking is available and affordable. As of October 2023, there are 161 renewable generation projects in Wisconsin, Iowa and other Upper Midwestern states representing more than 24.7 gigawatts dependent upon its completion – enough to power millions of homes and businesses with clean energy.
