By Rick Winterson

     Part of the new 345kV transmission line project terminating at I and First involved NSTAR’s installation of a 1,000-foot segment of the City of Boston Harbor Walk.  The 345kV line was energized last month; the Harbor Walk was formally opened to the public last Thursday.

     The occasion was the opening of the section of Harbor Walk designed by BSC Group (Elkins Street), and installed by NSTAR around their recently energized South Boston substation.

Approximately a hundred people gathered at the intersection of I and First Streets last Thursday, June 7, at 2 p.m.  Among them were state Sen. Jack Hart, state Rep. Brian Wallace, City Councilor Bill Linehan, Boston’s Jim Hunt, and Station C-6 Commander Capt. Robert Flaherty.

     NSTAR officials included Walter Salvi and VP of Community Relations Joe Nolan.  Landscape architect Marybeth Murphy and Ken Fields came over from BSC.  Community activists Vivian Li, Lucky Devlin, and Mary Cooney were among the attendees.

     NSTAR’s Walter Salvi acted as emcee for the occasion.  He first introduced Joe Nolan, VP of Corporate Relations.  Nolan told of how the $220 million transmission line was now up and running and would deliver 1,200 megawatts to the Boston area, eventually retiring the L Street generating station.  The Harbor Walk is part of the mitigations from NSTAR; another is the new seawall along Day Boulevard.  Nolan expressly thanked the neighbors along First Street for being tolerant of all the construction disruption.

     Sen. Hart thanked NSTAR for “helping to reconnect us with the Harbor”.  Brian Wallace mentioned swimming in the Reserve Channel, and how it was now possible once again.  Jim hunt, the City’s Director of Energy and Environment, said that 37 miles of the 47 miles planned for the Harbor walk are now in place.

     Vivian Li, who heads the Boston Harbor Association, thanked NSTAR also.  She then told an interesting historical anecdote.  Where the Harbor Walk is now located, the Bay State Iron Works once stood.  This company made some of the rails for the Transcontinental Railroad in 1863.  The rails were sent around Cape Horn and laid in the Sacramento area.  One of these old rails has been found and is on its way back.  It’ll be installed along the NSTAR Harbor Walk, on the original Bay State Iron Works site.

     Mention was made of the 345kV transmission line.  It is a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art line using underground cooled transmission.  It is the largest single such line in the world, which means that Boston is still making technical history.  Three start-up faults along its 18-mile length required repair, delaying energizing of the South Boston leg for about seven months. 

     However, it is now completely on line.

     After the ribbon was cut and the Harbor Walk was formally opened to the public, the attendees walked its 1,000-foot length.  The Walk is now open to all, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  NSTAR hopes that everyone will take advantage of the novel views of the Reserve Channel and the city presented by the Walk