Alliant has three tops sites identified for substation replacement

Alliant Energy has three potential sites identified for its new substation to serve the city's core, but hasn't taken one location in New Bohemia off the table, spokesman Scott Drzycimski said today.

The former Sinclair meatpacking plant, at 1600 Third St. SE, and the former Iowa Steel and former Iowa Iron Works plants, which straddle the 400 block of 12th Avenue SE, are the top sites out of nine considered, he said.

Drzycimski called the Sinclair site “probably number three of the three” because of its lower elevation and potential for future flooding, as well as its greater distance from buildings it would serve

Iowa Iron, next to the Cherry Building in the New Bohemia district, is still one of the sites considered best suited to replace the flooded Cedar Substation, he said.

That prospect last month raised the ire of New Bohemia business owners, who have worked to rebuild the arts and entertainment district from the devastating Floods of 2008. A year-round farmers market is also planned to be built in the district.

Alliant has met with representatives of St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church, which sits near the Iowa Steel plant, and the Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street District and plans further meetings with officials from neighborhood groups, as well as an open house, Drzycimski said.

“We want to make sure we're not missing a site” that hasn't been suggested yet, he said.

The site needs room for a structure as large as 220-by-250 feet and should be close to the south half of downtown, which it will serve.

That area includes the police station, Linn County Courthouse, Paramount Theatre, and Mercy Medical Center and St. Luke's Hospital.

The substation cannot be rebuilt in its current site in the city's Park and Ride lot because it would be on the wet side of new flood protection, Drzycimski said.

Alliant quickly replaced the flooded utility with a temporary substation within three weeks after the flood and engineers would like a permanent one in place by early 2012.

Because the substation would take about one year to build, Drzycimski said, construction should begin in the next year.