BLM approves segments of Gateway West Transmission Line in Wyoming

The Bureau of Land Management announced today that the agency has issued the final construction approval for two 230-kilovolt segments of the Gateway West Transmission line. Each of the segments begin near Glenrock, Wyoming: a new 60-mile transmission line beginning at the Windstar Substation and a rebuild of a 58-mile line beginning at the Dave Johnson Power Plant. Both lines terminate at the Shirly Basin Substation in Carbon County, Wyoming and will run parallel to each other through most of the project area. 

These two transmission lines, commonly referred to as “D-1”, represent the second phase of the 1,000-mile Gateway West Transmission Line Project that will ultimately connect the substations near Glenrock, Wyoming to the Hemingway Substation near Boise, Idaho. The first phase of the project was constructed in 2019 and consists of 160 miles of 230-kilovolt and 500-kilovolt transmission lines that connect the Shirley Basin Substation to the Jim Bridger Substation in Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The remaining segments of Gateway West will be completed over the next few years.  

The Gateway West Transmission Line Project will support approximately 90 construction jobs and help integrate up to 765 megawatts of new renewable energy resources into the grid while also ensuring reliability of existing generation resources. Building transmission lines will help deliver cleaner and cheaper electricity that lowers costs for families and consumers. The Gateway West project is part of PacifiCorp’s Energy Gateway Transmission Expansion, a multi-year investment plan to add approximately 2,000 miles of new transmission lines across the West. 

“Along with the Gateway South Transmission Line Project, this is the second transmission project I’ve been able to approve here in Wyoming and I couldn’t be prouder of the BLM staff and our strong partnership with the State of Wyoming and the project’s proponent, PacifiCorp,” said BLM Wyoming State Director Andrew Archuleta. “These projects take years of work and coordination to ensure they are completed responsibly and with input from the public and our state and federal partners. Projects like this bring good-paying jobs to communities in Wyoming and across the West and illustrates the BLM’s commitment to modernizing the nation’s infrastructure.” 

The BLM worked with PacifiCorp, federal partners, and the state of Wyoming to establish an innovative and collaborative approach to mitigating impacts caused by the construction of the lines. This approach will fund and establish processes for selecting mitigation projects to offset impacts to wildlife, greater sage-grouse, and other resources within the project area.