The developer of a $2-billion transmission line that will run from Canada to New York City plans to issue a solicitation for an engineering, procurement and construction contract after reaching settlement late last month with state agencies and environmental groups in New York.

The 333-mile Champlain-Hudson Power Express will be designed to carry 1,000 MW of renewable energy via a high-voltage direct-current line running underground and underwater.

Albany, N.Y.-based Transmission Developers Inc. (TDI) is developing the project, which is designed to deliver hydroelectricity and wind power. The line will originate underwater at the U.S.-Canada international border, near Champlain, N.Y., and continue south under Lake Champlain for 101 miles. Plans call for the line to exit at the lake's southern end, near Dresden, N.Y., and then extend through mostly rights-of-way along land until reaching the Hudson River in Catskill, N.Y. The line will then run under the Harlem River before making landfall in Queens, N.Y.

Announced on Feb. 24, the settlement re-routes some sections of the line away from environmentally sensitive areas and creates a $117-million environmental benefit fund.

TDI says the project rose to $2 billion primarily due to the new route, which replaced some underwater cable with underground cable, a more expensive undertaking.

Donald Jessome, TDI president and CEO, recently stated that the company is preparing to release the engineering-procurement-construction solicitation.

With the settlement in place, Jessome is optimistic that, later this year, the New York Public Service Commission will grant a required certificate of environmental compatibility and public need. The project also must secure a federal permit. TDI hopes to complete the line in 2016.