Staverton to Hampshire Hills

The Staverton to Hampshire Hills transmission line is a vital link in the North West Transmission Developments. Once constructed this 60-kilometre section of high voltage transmissions towers and lines will provide network security and strength to be able to handle a significant increase in clean energy generated in the North West and importantly also allow the completion of the remaining sections of the North West Transmission Developments. A separate Development Application and Environmental Impact Statement is required for the Staverton to Hampshire Hills section as part of the project approvals process.

Selecting the route

A detailed route selection process is used to determine transmission routes with a range of technical network requirements, environmental and social factors considered to minimise the impacts on communities, environment, cultural heritage and land use.

For Staverton to Hampshire Hills, TasNetworks released a proposed route in November 2019, and after further desktop analysis and consideration of community and landowner feedback the proposed route was further refined with a preferred route released in August 2020.

As part of the environment, planning and heritage assessment process, TasNetworks completed studies along the preferred route to understand any potential impacts the project may have on the environment and local communities. As a result of these field surveys some significant geological and ecological features were identified.

Specifically, the studies and geotechnical drilling have shown that a section of the transmission line, around 10km, is located on land that is prone to landslides, could have resulted in impacts to the karst and cave systems as well as areas of native rainforest.

Based on these findings, it was necessary to realign a section of the preferred route further to the south to avoid these areas.

View the preferred route