Due to limited access restrictions on Northpointe Drive, AEP will need to partially rebuild a road every time one of the large transformers housed at the Ohio Central Station in Dresden needs to be moved.

Two AEP representatives met with the Muskingum County Commissioners and the Muskingum County Engineers Office to discuss a more permanent access point off Northpointe Drive to their station in Dresden.

“The importance of it is the ease of access so that we can remove those (transformers) should an outage occur or anything need to happen where we would replace a large transformer like we’ll have stored there,” Kyle Strahler, AEP project manager for transmission, said.

AEP is in the process of bringing another large transformer to store at the Dresden station. The issue discussed in the meeting is the access point to the station on McGlade School Road doesn’t allow for a 175,000 pound to 200,000 pound transformer to be transported in and out that way due to the set-up of the station.

The company was granted temporary access off Northpointe but wants to keep the access after the transformer is stored.

Administrative Deputy Matt Russell said the engineer’s office typically doesn’t allow access points off Northpointe Drive to prevent cross traffic.

County Engineer Mark Eicher added during the meeting that he periodically gets requests for access points off of Northpointe Drive but typically denies those requests.

The compromise is to build the road for temporary use and remove it after, but preserve enough to make rebuilding the road easier in the future.

“I think it’s a pretty good compromise,”  Strahler said. “Rather than taking it completely out, we’re going to install the road, use it for our temporary access and we’ll remove it and partially restore it to a condition that will be easier for our teams with station and TFS (transmission field services) to clear off and put back should we need to get back in there.”

With the compromise, the road will still need to be altered for transportation if the transformer were to come out of storage due to a major outage, but the AEP representatives said it’s better than the alternative of building the entire road every time.

“If we have a major outage where we need to get one of those transformers out of there, it’s going to take us a little while to build that road in to get that transformer out,” Scott Welker, AEP supervisor, said.

Strahler added that the amount of time AEP would need to use that access point would be on an emergent bases.

“It could be 10 times in one year, it could be never in 10 years,” Strahler said. “It’s one of those things that we keep there as a spare and fortunately they just hang out and wait for us.”

AEP engineers are going to work with the county engineer’s office to come up with the most suitable materials and process for both parties involved.