KENNEBUNK — Central Maine Power Company received final approval from the site plan review board last week to erect high-voltage lines across the town that will be a small portion of the state’s largest power transmission project to date.

The planning department will issue a formal written draft of approval to the company in the next few days, followed by a walk of the land at the end of the week with town officials, contractors and CMP representatives, according to Caroline Segalla, Kennebunk’s director of community development, planning and codes.

“They’ve been good with working with the water district and others with their plans,” said Segalla of the board’s reasoning to approve CMP’s project.

Construction workers of Eagle Veteran Construction Services LLC, based in Rochester, N.Y., will start clearing trees and installing temporary bridges over wetlands and access ways at the end of this week or the beginning of next, according to John Carroll, CMP spokesman.

The 5.5 miles of 345,000- and 115,000-volt electrical lines in Kennebunk are to be part of the Maine Power Reliability Program’s 450 miles of transmission lines stretching from the Town of Orrington, just south of Bangor, down to Eliot.

“In advance of the work, we will notify all of the abutters (neighboring residents) and leave door hangers,” said Carroll about the company’s warnings to homeowners of the upcoming construction.

A substation on Maguire Road will also be expanded to handle greater voltage.

“The project was fully approved, but we postponed it for a bit,” Carroll said, about the need for one last site walk to address environmental concerns.

Following the clearing, 140-foot utility poles will be set, strung to conductors, with the last phase being the replanting of vegetation.

According to Segalla, Public Works Director Michael Claus will film video of the power line corridor on the site walk to record its current environmental status to compare later on the damage, if any, that may result from construction.

After the clearing, lines will be installed early this summer and are estimated to be completed next summer, with the substation’s expansion to begin early next summer and finish during the first quarter of 2014, said Carroll.

The town has an ordinance that limits utility poles to be no higher than 55 feet, according to Carroll, but the regulations were waived by selectmen in August 2010. CMP went back and forth with the planning board to the selectmen three times to amend the ordinance for the project within the last few years, but the selectmen eventually decided to permit the height waiver, just for this project.

A report released in February 2009 by the University of Southern Maine Center for Business and Economic Research said the project would create 1,180 jobs by 2010 in York County alone. Carroll said that as of now, 2,200 people work on the project on a daily basis.

He added that for every three jobs created that are directly related to the program, one indirectly related job will be added.

Carroll said the entire project is expected to be accomplished by 2015.

With a larger substation and an increase in voltage, Carroll said the project will allow for more dependability for Maine residents as demand for electricity grows.

“The purpose of this is really about reliability,” said Carroll.

— Staff Writer Matt Kiernan can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 326 or mkiernan@journaltribune.com.