Alberta's Electricity System

When AltaLink begins to plan transmission line routing, the project area is researched in an effort to find routing with the lowest overall impact. Use the controls below to navigate through the process.

Start the process

Stage 1

• Remove quarter section lines in urban residential developments
• Remove quarter section lines in Historical Resources Value 1 areas
• Remove quarter section lines crossing water bodies greater than 4 hectares

Stage 2

• Remove quarter section lines with high residential impact within 150 metres (492 feet)
• Remove quarter section lines with an oil or gas well within 50 metres (164 feet)
• Remove quarter section lines with high residential impact within 800 metres (2,624 feet)

Stage 3

• Remove quarter section lines within the defined Environmentally Significant Areas

Stage 4

• Remove quarter section lines crossing aggregate areas (surface mineral extraction)
• Remove quarter section lines that are not constructible because of major river valleys
• Remove quarter section lines in Historical Resource Value 2 and 3 areas
• Remove quarter section lines within 800 (2,624 feet) metres of a hospital, school or daycare.

Stage 5

• Remove quarter section lines that intersect active pivot or lateral irrigated parcels
• Assess quarter section lines for constructability and illogical routing, and remove where appropriate

Stage 6

Identification of preliminary routing:

• Identification of non-quarter section line based preliminary routes
• Assess removed quarter section lines to create connectivity
• Combine quarter section lines into longer segments
• Assess and compare longer segments, looking for lowest overall potential impacts

Preliminary Routes

Refine preliminary routing by comparing individual segments to one another for potential residential and commercial impacts