(KTNC) - The Midwest Transmission Project has selected a final route for a new 345-kilovolt electric transmission line that will run from Nebraska City to Sibley, Missouri.
 The final route is approximately 180-miles long and travels through portions of 10 counties in southeast Nebraska and northwest Missouri – including Otoe, Nemaha, and Richardson Counties in Nebraska, and Holt County in Missouri. 
 Bill Musgrave is a spokesman for the Midwest Transmission Project.  He says the final route was chosen after a yearlong process that included 20 public open houses attended by more than two thousand people.  (play audio  :27    oc: “as possible.”)
 The transmission line is a joint project between the Omaha Public Power District and Kansas City Power and Light.  OPPD will manage development and construction of the parts of the line in Nebraska, and KCP-and-L will manage the project in Missouri.  Musgrave says they’ll start contacting landowners along the route as the next part of the project.  (play cut    :27    “will be shared.”)
 The goal is to begin construction in the summer of 2015 and have the line completed in the summer of 2017.  The line will run from the KCP-and-L Substation near Sibley to the new Mullin Creek Substation south of Maryville and on to the OPPD Substation south of Nebraska City.
 The Midwest Transmission Line project is part of a regional project of the Southwest Power Pool – which involves nine regional power companies – to improve the electrical transmission system.  (play cut   :18    oc: “less congestion.”)
 Locally, the line will extend from south of Maryville through northern Holt County, northeastern Richardson County and eastern Nemaha County to the Nebraska City substation.  It will skirt southwest of Indian Cave State Park and between the Corning and Thurnau Conservation Areas in Holt County.  Maps of the final route are available online at www.MidwestTransmissionProject.com.
 Planners expect the line to cost around $400 million and create approximately 50 construction jobs during the construction phase.