BPUB Brownsville Country Club Electric Project
The Brownsville Public Utilities Board (BPUB) has started work on another major infrastructure project in Brownsville. This one in the Brownsville Country Club (BCC) area will have a major impact on those customers’ electrical service reliability.
The purpose of the BPUB Brownsville Country Club Electric Project is to replace underground primary electrical cable. In some cases, the cable is as much as 40 years old. Over time, these cables degrade, and this can have a direct impact on electrical service reliability in that area. Replacing the aging cable will ensure greater electrical reliability for the BCC area for years to come.
The BCC Electric Project will be conducted in 23 sections. Work began Nov. 15 in the area of San Marcelo Boulevard, Cuba Street and Habana Street. These streets, which comprise sections 1 and 2, are estimated to be completed by mid-January 2017. Once these initial sections are completed, crews will continue to work by section in a sequential order until all work is finished. The full project is estimated to take 24 months.
This project is similar to the one that was done in the Land O’ Lakes subdivision but on a much larger scale. The former project was done in seven segments, but it provided the experience necessary to plan this larger infrastructure improvement project.
BPUB crews are keeping the lines of communication open with BCC-area residents. There will be times when it’s necessary for crews to work in utility easements (typically a 10-foot strip of customers’ outdoor property that may contain underground cabling and pipes for cable television service, fiber optic cable and utilities). Also, while BPUB crews will be minimizing any outages, some residents in the area may experience short periods without electrical service while crews replace sections of underground power cable. Any outages are estimated to last between 10 minutes and one hour. All customers who will be affected will be notified at least one day in advance before crews work on their property. In addition, there is a BCC Electric Project page on the BPUB website that will keep people informed about the progress that has been made.
The first two sections are scheduled to be finished by mid-January, but situations that may be a factor in section completions will be weather conditions, area geology and existing underground structures like services including natural gas, telephone and sewer.
The BCC project is just another example of how BPUB has continued to do its part to maintain and improve Brownsville’s electrical infrastructure, but there is more on the way. BPUB has been putting a particular focus on transitioning from overhead power lines. This can be seen in the work that is being done in downtown’s Market Square. One of the more picturesque areas in the city will no longer have overhead power lines to mar the view. Likewise, customers in the Land O’ Lakes area now enjoy better service reliability after BPUB completed the replacement project in that area.
BPUB will continue to target areas for upgrades and replacements. This is to ensure that all customers, commercial and residential, will enjoy the very best service reliability possible.