Key Pen Highway Roadwork Goes Into Summer

Staff Report

Key Pen Highway Roadwork Goes Into Summer

Peninsula Light Co. has been busy along the KP Highway, reducing traffic to a single lane on weekdays in three different locations and stopping cars for a few minutes each way.

Power lines are being buried from Key Center north to Lake Minterwood and underground lines are being replaced from Lake Minterwood up to 134th Avenue KPN. “Tree wire” is being installed north from Cromwell Road to Key Center and will continue for at least two months or more. After that section is complete, the crew will continue installing tree wire from Cromwell south to the end of the line around 80th KPS.

“Tree wire is an insulated coating that helps to prevent outages when smaller branches contact our lines,” said Jacqueline Goodwill, communications and public relations manager for PenLight. “It has been installed in areas where undergrounding was more expensive and wouldn’t prove to be more effective.”

The undergrounding work started about two months ago and, along with the overhead tree wire installation, will extend into the summer, she said.

“On the plus side, over the past 10 years, PenLight has moved our community into the first quartile for reliability, due mainly to projects like these,” Goodwill said. “So, be patient with us and know that we're working to keep the lights on.”