“I led the onshore portion of the South Fork Wind Project and will provide examples from that project of how regulatory influence can drive design decisions and environmental considerations when you’re in construction.”

“We’re looking at the strength of the soil to figure out how deep the foundation needs to go. Not so shallow that it fails in a few years, but not so deep that it’s over-designed and unnecessarily expensive. It’s about finding the right balance between long-term durability and cost.”

“On a steel or wood pole, a specialized coating or a sleeve is put on below grade to protect from corrosion. But with concrete, it comes out of the mold ready to set in a corrosive environment.”

“Order 1920 in some ways may sound drastic in terms of the magnitude of change. But it provides an opportunity to evaluate transmission more creatively, more holistically.”

“Galloping is a type of low-frequency, high-amplitude vibration in power lines. It’s when the wires start bouncing up and down, sometimes to an extreme degree. It’s a big deal because it can cause serious damage.”

“Zach and I are hitting on the ways that engineers can expand their thinking to set up craft labor for more successful and safe execution.”

“The key takeaway is understanding the evolving approach to traditional refurbishment projects. That’s where advanced conductors like ACCC come in. These all-aluminum composite conductors offer higher capacity and performance without requiring changes to the existing line design.”

“The biggest takeaway is the importance of building a stronger bridge between the engineers in the office and the crews out in the field. It’s about understanding what’s happening on site — what tools are being used, what challenges they’re facing — and making sure that insight makes its way back into our design process.”

James Duehning, Mark Van Dyne, Kent Herzog, Alex Lee, and Andrew Schulte: “We need to shift from a deterministic planning model to something more probabilistic, especially with all the uncertainty around future load and generation. The way we identify project needs today doesn’t fully reflect the realities we’re facing.”

From the sidelines of its Annual Transmission Symposium, conversations with Burns & McDonnell’s Alberto Ruiz, Chih-Hung Chen, Jess Kurpius, Zach O'Toole, JC Perkins, Matt Ingram, Matt Lind, Kyle Combes, Michaela Nickell, Brent Windsor, Brad Gardner, Paul Barker, Danny Serrano, Vinny Montemurro, James Duehning, Mark Van Dyne, Kent Herzog, Alex Lee, and Polsinelli law firm’s Andrew Schulte.