Saint John Energy to move power lines in Sand Cove area

Saint John Energy is moving power lines on a stretch of Sand Cove Road in response to land slippage in the area.

• Sand Cove Road report shows history of slope failures
• Saint John's Sand Cove Road threatened by slope failure

Steve Simmie,vicepresident for engineering and operations at Saint John Energy,says moving power lines further from the slope is a longterm plan to make sure power is available to homes in that areaand also to ahalf dozen homes further along Sand Cove Road to the west.

"We think the most prudent thing now is to move the poles to the other side of the road," said Simmie. "We fully intend to go through and get it done at some point, probably early spring."

Simmie says the change is now in the design stage andhe doesnot know how much the move would cost.

"We had a capital infrastructure program there budgeted for two years out, we're going to just move that ahead," said Simmie.

The lines will only be moved across for a short, eight pole section of Sand Cove Road in the area of McLarens beach.

The utility has experienced other problems related to ground movement in that area.Simmie says over the past seven years, Saint John Energy staff have had to lengthen power lines to a handful of homes after the buildings moved, causing the line to the power pole to stretch.

The city, meanwhile has not yet decided what to do with Sand Cove Road itself.The road was reduced to a single lane after municipal engineers became concerned about the ground instability near McLarens Beach.

It is the only access road to about a dozen homes and to the Irving Nature Park.

According to west side Coun.Bill Farren, no money has been budgeted in 2016 for remediation work to deal with issues brought on by the slope failure.