EPHRATA — A new 115-kilovolt transmission line to a planned electrical substation near Royal City will run along Road D Southwest.

Grant PUD’s new transmission line will connect Frenchman Hills to the planned Red Rock substation southeast of Royal City, which is designed to address increasing demand for electricity in the Royal City area. Red Rock substation is scheduled for completion in 2022, the same time as the transmission line.

The route was one of three options identified by Grant PUD analysts working on the line project. The original project was expanded to include reconstruction of the transmission line from the Frenchman Hills substation to Royal City. The selection of a route was announced during a presentation at the regular meeting of the utility’s commission meeting on Tuesday, March 24.

The cost for the line work was estimated at $10,051,000. Commissioners had approved the project as part of the 2020 budget.

The selected route came at a higher price than the second choice, along Road E Southwest. The second option would have cost about $7 million.

But, project manager David Klinkenberg said, the Road E Southwest option did not include rebuilding the existing Frenchman Hills line. That line is reaching the end of its service life and will have to be rebuilt within the next 10 years, he said. That project would cost about $3 million, Klinkenberg said, so within a decade the cost would be about the same.

The Road D option was the one preferred by PUD customers who came to two public hearings on the alternatives, Klinkenberg said. The Road D Southwest route will make maximum use of existing corridors, would have the smallest impact in areas without transmission lines previously, and the least impact on crop dusting applications.