Reporting by Robert Walton at Utility Dive, with additional reporting from Michael Gannon at the Queens Chronicle and Paul Ciampoli at the American Public Power Association.
The next big construction job on Long Island runs 90 miles, and almost all of it is underground.
What happened
New York's Public Service Commission approved the Propel NY Energy transmission project on Sept. 17, Robert Walton reported for Utility Dive. The $3.26 billion project is being developed by the New York Power Authority, the state's public power utility and New York Transco.
The commission granted what New York calls a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need, the Queens Chronicle's Michael Gannon reported. In plain terms, it is the state's permission to site and build the line. The approval came through a joint proposal signed by the developers, state agencies, the City of New York and the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, with the Long Island Power Authority and PSEG Long Island in support, according to Paul Ciampoli of the American Public Power Association.
"This critical infrastructure project meets our statutory siting standards," PSC Chair Rory Christian said, as quoted by Utility Dive.
Construction could begin at specific spots along the route later in 2026, with full-scale construction expected to start in mid-2027 and the line finished by 2030.
Why it counts
A transmission line is only a drawing until somebody digs the trench, pulls the cable and wires the substation. On Propel NY, the people doing that work are already being lined up.
In July, NYPA and New York Transco selected three contractors for pre-construction work, Ciampoli reported for APPA. Their first job is the unglamorous part that decides how smoothly everything after it goes: value engineering, regulatory filings, and the Environmental Management and Construction Plans, the detailed segment-by-segment instructions for how crews will dig, build and restore each stretch of road.
All three have deep roots in this kind of work.
The Hallen Construction Co. has been building electric and natural gas infrastructure in the New York area since 1927, with Con Edison and National Grid among its clients, according to the company. It is based in Plainview, on Long Island, and has been part of Quanta Services since 2019.
Haugland Group is headquartered in Melville. The company and its affiliates employ more than 1,000 full-time workers, about 75% of them in the craft trades, and the operation is fully unionized, according to the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency. Its energy division builds underground transmission, substations and battery storage, per Haugland.
BOND Civil & Utility Construction is a fifth-generation family firm founded in 1907, based in Medford, Massachusetts, with offices in New York and across the Northeast, according to BOND. Electric transmission and distribution is one of its core markets.
The contractors will work with "local unions, and area stakeholders," APPA reported. That commitment goes back to the start. When the New York Independent System Operator, the nonprofit that runs the state's grid and plans its transmission, picked Propel NY in 2023, NYPA said the project would use "skilled union labor to the greatest extent practicable," according to the authority's announcement.
"To deliver the best project, you need the best workforce, and I am encouraged by the conversations we have had with New York Transco and NYPA."
Matthew Aracich, president of the Nassau-Suffolk Building Trades, in 2023
Dennis Affinati, an international vice president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the electrical workers' union, said at the time that the collaboration of "the skilled women and men in the IBEW" with public and private partners "is the key to cost-effective, efficient and successful projects."
The numbers
Every figure here comes from the reporting and documents linked in this post.
- 90 miles of new underground transmission line, per Utility Dive.
- 138 kV and 345 kV lines. A kilovolt, or kV, is a thousand volts. Lines at these levels are the highways of the grid, built to move large amounts of power over long distances.
- 9 existing or new substations tied into the line.
- 5 counties on the route: Suffolk, Nassau, Queens, the Bronx and Westchester.
- $3.26 billion in investment.
- 2030 target for completion.
- More than 1,800 megawatts of offshore wind already operating or under construction in New York, part of the reason the commission found that "the need for the project continues to exist."
In Queens, the route runs along Northern Boulevard from the Nassau County line to Francis Lewis Park, then crosses beneath the East River into the Bronx, the Queens Chronicle reported.
What comes next
The commission's approval is the big permit, not the last one. The PSC is still reviewing the project's Environmental Management and Construction Plans, and public comments on them are open through Oct. 1, according to Utility Dive and APPA. Those plans are where the day-to-day details get settled: which streets, which months, how traffic moves, how work sites get restored.
Some communities along the route are still weighing in. In Queens, local officials have asked for the cable to run beneath parkland rather than neighborhood streets near Little Neck Bay, the Queens Chronicle reported, and the Village of Sea Cliff on Long Island said it is reviewing the decision, according to Utility Dive. That review process is what the construction plan stage is for.
Once the plans clear, work will move in "limited segments and phases," the PSC said, as reported by Utility Dive. For crews, that means a multi-year run of work close to home: excavation, cable installation, substation construction and site restoration, stretched across five counties and several building seasons.
NYPA President and CEO Justin Driscoll put the priority plainly in July: "With the urgent need for a reliable transmission backbone that will serve southeastern New York, our teams are advancing project construction plans."
The Bottom Line
Propel NY has its state approval, its contractors and a union labor commitment that goes back three years. What it needs now is the work itself: 90 miles of trench and cable and nine substations, built by trades from Plainview, Melville and beyond. For Long Island and downstate New York, that is steady, skilled construction work stretching toward 2030, and a stronger backbone for the grid when it is done.
Positive Current
Sources: Utility Dive, Robert Walton, "New York regulators approve 90-mile transmission line" · Queens Chronicle, Michael Gannon, "Propel NY project takes a major step" · American Public Power Association, Paul Ciampoli, "New York Regulators Approve Settlement Tied to Transmission Project Involving NYPA" · American Public Power Association, Paul Ciampoli, "NYPA, New York Transco Select Contractors for Transmission Project" · New York Power Authority, Propel NY Energy selection announcement (2023) · Suffolk County IDA, "The Haugland Group" · Haugland Energy · Hallen Construction, About · BOND, Firm Overview
