Long Island Replacement Cable Project-Northport, N.Y. and Norwalk, Conn.
The time had come to replace 11 miles of worn, 40-year-old cable that runs underneath Long Island Sound between Northport, N.Y. and Norwalk, Conn.
The cables had supplied up to 300 megawatts of electric power to either New England or New York when needed. But the $140 million project, which began in the fall of 2007, was so complex that it required one of the most technologically advanced ships in the world and sensitivity to the environment that halted operations while piping birds mated and fishermen caught summer flounder.