National Grid Millbury, MA to West Farnum, RI

Interstate Reliability Project

BSC Group was retained by National Grid to provide support for New England East-West Solution (NEEWS), a suite of projects design to address threats to the reliability of the region’s transmission system. The IRP portion of the NEEWS suite includes the construction of a 345-kV transmission line from Millbury, MA to West Farnum, a 15.4-mile segment that traverses multiple wetland resource areas and buffer zones.

BSC’s team provided wetland delineation and GPS survey for 71 wetlands and 31 streams, GIS mapping of wetlands and environmental constraints, and permit plans for local, state, and federal wetland and waterways permits. The state and federal levels permit plans required wetland invasive species, rare species, and vegetation/cover type mapping.

BSC was also responsible for preliminary wetland assessments for route evaluation, wetland classification, wetland data sheets, wildlife habitat assessments, rare species assessments and surveys, vernal pool investigations, USACE jurisdictional determinations, and USACE functions and values assessments. In many cases, BSC had to evaluate wetland alterations caused by beaver activity in order to recommend management plans.

For the permitting phase of the project, BSC was responsible for local and state permitting, and federal permitting assistance for the Massachusetts portion of the IRP. Project mitigation includes wetland restoration for temporary impacts, wetland replication for permanent impacts, enhancement for permanent habitat conversions, off-site wetland preservation for secondary impacts (USACE), compensatory flood storage, and rare species habitat protection/creation.