Boston PIC Approves Eversource Underground Transmission Line Through Dorchester and South Boston

BOSTON -- October 19, 2023, Boston's Public Improvement Commission approved six petitions at its October 19 meeting, highlighted by dual approval of Eversource Energy's roughly one-mile underground transmission line linking the Andrew Square and Dewar Street substations through more than a dozen streets in Dorchester and South Boston. Project manager Dean Bevis confirmed biweekly coordination meetings with the Boston Housing Authority and outreach to Mary Ellen McCormick residents, and immediately asked staff after the vote how to file street opening permits to begin excavation. The commission also approved a pedestrian easement and street repairs for JPNDC's 48-unit affordable senior housing project at 4-18 Cheney Street in Roxbury, a Verizon conduit installation near One Canal Street, and a Cambridge Network Solutions conduit on Boylston Street, the last with a condition requiring the applicant to reduce a lengthy diagonal crossing over a 12-inch water main. National Grid engineer Tim Maytook raised unresolved concerns about Vicinity Energy's Fenway steam line expansion, saying the company "got phase one approved without meeting our conditions," prompting the commission to continue that hearing to November 2.