Some of the best utility employees this side of the Mississippi are stringing a transmission line to – you guessed it – the other side of the Mississippi.
This critical infrastructure project connects with the Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. (AECI), a neighboring company in Missouri, providing a highway of electricity to support economic development, power flow for peak seasons and greater flexibility in power trading.
“It’s not just any river crossing,” said Razi Overby, contract construction manager, when telling the story of the Tiptonville-New Madrid line. “It’s the Mississippi. It’s a different beast.”
Along with the sandy soil near the bank of the Mississippi river, there’s also a major fault line – conditions that required a deep concrete foundation for the dead-end towers on each side of the river.
To withstand the tension of such a long span, the foundations are each 90 feet deep and reinforced with roughly 464,000 pounds of rebar and 170 truckloads of concrete.
“Installing the number two line, an intertie with AECI, will help us interchange with our neighboring customer and give us resources to do maintenance on the existing assets,” said Joe Bell, Transmission Field Lines supervisor in the West Region. “We take the project from the time it goes through scoping and engineering and then start the implementation phases – coordinating, laying out the project, acquiring outages and working with customers.”
Designed to meet the region’s growing energy demand, this new 161-kilovolt line adds extensive capacity to the system. The only thing larger than the span of this transmission line is the team coordinating the effort – both in the air and on the ground.
Senior project manager Michael Yarbrough spoke about this massive collaborative effort.
“So many people worked on this project,” he said. “And when you see everybody clicking and looking out for the next group, that’s when my job is most rewarding.”
Projects like these don’t happen overnight. They are a culmination of months – sometimes years – of coordination efforts. They are also the continuation of foundational work that came decades before.
Clem Peters, field support supervisor, served as the lead civil tech on the first tower that was built in 1992. Not only was he part of the team that pulled the wire, he was knocking on doors of landowners nearby.
“We talked to those people like we’d talk to a family member,” Peters recalled. “Gave them our phone numbers, kept them informed. When you shake someone’s hand out there, you are the face of TVA.”
Today, all these years later, Peters is seeing the evolution of technology firsthand.
Nick Ashe, supervisor for Transmission Field Construction, was involved in the telecommunication piece, and he described his team’s role in enabling real-time communication across TVA’s infrastructure. Optical ground wire (OPGW) nests fiber-optic cabling inside traditional static wires, offering a protective high-speed path for data transmission.
“We help make that full communication path between plants, substations, powerhouses and everything back to the System Operations Center,” he said. “With fiber, you have equipment that serves real time with no delay – a feature that protects the bulk system.”
The OPGW isn’t the only efficient communicator in the project.
Andy Murphy, substation construction foreman, handled the substation expansion, integrating new equipment that would support the Tiptonville line.
“We all have a part to play,” he said. “And we can’t complete our part without each other.”
TVA employees are collaborative. And they wake up every morning, putting on their boots and joining in the efforts that, collectively, will power a growing region for years to come.
“It’s about being part of something greater than just the day-to-day operations,” Bell said.
Ashe, too, reflected on his journey from an 18-year-old hire to a supervisor, emphasizing the importance of mentorship and ushering in the generation that will string the next lines.
“There’s no end to what we could be or how far you want to go – as an employee and as a citizen of the Valley,” Ashe said. “And I like seeing the difference we are making along the way.”
TVA’s strength is in people – its own employees, and those who call the Valley region home.
There’s power in every handshake and every hello.
And when people reach across rivers, roads or state lines, the connection they’ve made keeps the lights on for years to come.
“I’m proud of my experience and of what I’ve seen for the past 36 years at TVA,” Peters said. “I want to see TVA around for the next generations, too.”
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