Entergy's removal of the de-energized overhead transmission lines that span the Mississippi River at New Orleans is scheduled to begin Tuesday, March 7.

The overhead lines were replaced by new high-voltage transmission lines, which are buried 100 feet beneath the bottom of the Mississippi River. The under-river transmission lines were energized in May 2004.

Beginning tomorrow morning, helicopters will begin removing the “insulators” from the overhead lines. Insulators, sometimes referred to as spacers, keep transmission lines a safe distance from one another. The six transmission lines and two “shield” wires will be removed in the coming weeks by pulling the lines from one side of the river to the other using sequentially smaller cables, until the cables are light enough to allow a helicopter to lift and remove them completely.

The work is expected to take place on Tuesdays and Fridays, and will require river closures of up to nine hours on work days. Entergy is working with the United States Coast Guard to ensure river closures are kept to a minimum. Removal of the lines is scheduled for completion by late May of this year, with dismantling of the towers scheduled for completion in 2007.

The span length between towers is 3020 feet. Each of the two towers, built in 1962, is 442 feet tall, weighs 183 tons (not including the foundations) and has over 30,000 bolts.

Each of the six aluminum-clad transmission lines that span between the towers is suspended by insulator assemblies, and weighs approximately 30 tons end-to-end.

Removal of the overhead lines and towers had been scheduled for the first week of September. However, Hurricane Katrina restoration efforts caused a delay in the project until now. Entergy asked for and received a permit extension from the Army Corps of Engineers to keep the de-energized lines in place past the Dec. 31, 2005 deadline. The Corps extended the deadline for removal of the lines to July 1, 2006.

Removal of the transmission lines will not affect ongoing restoration efforts in New Orleans and surrounding parishes.