HURRICANE, W.Va. –Appalachian Power Company announced Wednesday its proposed route for the Bancroft–Milton Transmission Line Rebuild Project.
The proposed route follows a review of input from landowners and community members gathered during public hearings in 2024 and 2025.
Amanda DeHaven, an outreach specialist for the project, said the team made sure to consider and listen to community comments.
“We’ve taken our time and taken all of the feedback that they’ve given us and went through and picked a proposed line route,” DeHaven told MetroNews. “So, this is a proposed line route that we will submit to the West Virginia Public Service Commission at the end of the year.”
Initially, the company’s proposed routes crossed the Meeks Mountain Trails, but community members who use and value the trail provided extensive feedback.
The revised route, which will cover approximately 20 miles of transmission line in Putnam and Cabell counties, will begin just east of the Kanawha River at the Bancroft Substation in Winfield, head northeast to the Winfield Hydro Substation, then turn south toward Teays Valley. From there, it will leave the existing transmission right-of-way to avoid the Meeks Mountain Trails, continue through Hurricane and Culloden, and terminate at the Milton Substation on James River Turnpike.
The project will also replace the wooden poles, originally constructed in the 1920s, with steel structures.
DeHaven said this upgrade will help the company provide reliable power to its customers.
“That’s our number one priority is providing that source of reliable power for our community,” she said.
She said that although the process has been lengthy, it has been worthwhile.
“We heard the community loud and clear, we took all their feedback to heart, we listened and this process works,” she said. “This is our process that we do for all of our project now, where we have open houses, and we get feedback from the public and then we go back to the drawing board and find a proposed route.”
DeHaven said the project began after PJM, the regulatory agency for electric companies on the East Coast, identified the area as experiencing growth and increased demand for power.
“They mandated that we do this project because it’s about reliability and providing power to the customers, so that’s when we started working on this project,” she said.
If the state Public Service Commission approves the route, construction on the line is expected to begin in summer 2028 and be completed by spring 2031.
For a detailed map of the route visit their website here.