A bird's eye view of our Avian Protection Program

Balancing our responsibility to improve electric system reliability with our environmental responsibilities in planning and construction is critical, and we have developed practices that provide guidance for construction work: avoidance, protection and restoration.

Read more about our Avian Protection Program.

Crews use helicopters during Pleasant Prairie-Zion Project construction

Helicopters can be a real time and cost saver in transmission line construction projects. In this video, a helicopter is being used to string ropes between structures on our Pleasant Prairie-Zion Transmission Line Project near Pleasant Prairie, Wis. The ropes are then used to pull the wires between the poles.

Underground construction begins for Western Milwaukee County Project

Construction is underway on the underground portion of our Western Milwaukee County Electric Reliability Project. The project involves construction of two sets of 138-kilovolt lines, each two miles long, to connect a new We Energies substation to the transmission grid. The two separate lines are needed to assure redundancy to the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, which operates two Level 1 trauma centers. Although construction was not scheduled to start until next year, we took advantage of the opportunity to begin the underground portion ─about 1,250 feet─to coincide with underground road work being performed by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Special foundations used for Wisconsin River island construction

We are using micropile technology to replace an aging transmission structure on an island in the Wisconsin River in Stevens Point, Wis.

A micropile is a high-performance drilled and grouted foundation that can be installed in environmentally sensitive locations using lightweight specialty equipment. In this case, the micropile will eliminate the need for bringing concrete trucks on to the island.

Seawalls have been installed along the shore in Bukolt Park in Stevens Point to accommodate a barge that will be used to ferry crews and equipment to the island when the work is performed this winter.