Segment E - Populus to Hemingway

Project Overview

Providing safe, reliable electrical service at reasonable rates is our companies commitment to our customers.

On behalf of PacifiCorp, we have partnered with Idaho Power to build the Populus to Hemingway high-voltage transmission line, a segment of the Gateway West project. The segment will originate near Downey Idaho, and run approximately 600 miles across Idaho to a new substation at Hemingway, southwest of Boise. The Populus to Hemingway project will include five expanded or new substations and will enable the companies to access existing and new generating resources, including wind, and deliver electricity from these sources to customers throughout the region. 

Project Timeline

  • Public Scoping – June 2008
  • Environmental Impact Statement process – 2008 - 2012
  • Public outreach – June 2008 - project completion
  • Permitting and obtaining rights of way – 2011- 2014
  • Estimated line in service for customers – 2014 - 2018

Additional Information About the Project

The Bureau of Land Management is currently developing an Environmental Impact Statement on Gateway West – a process that began in June 2008 with open house Public Scoping meetings. BLM has oversight of this process and hosted these meetings to collect official public comments. For more information, please visit BLM's Web site. To submit official public comment on the Gateway West Transmission Line Project, please contact the BLM

Please check this Web siteperiodically for updates, including the recent Gateway West project overview map (PDF), Gateway West fact sheet and Gateway West newsletter (PDF). Further information can be found at our Gateway West Web site.

Public Participation

Public input is an important part of the transmission line development process and is welcomed at all stages.

The Bureau of Land Management held open house meetings June 2008 as part of the environmental review process for this project. Our company and Idaho Power hosted additional landowner meetings in 2008 in Murphy, Twin Falls and Pocatello, Idaho. Follow-up landowner meetings for this segment then were held in Burley, Twin Falls, Gooding, American Falls, Melba, Grand View, Bruneau and Kuna, Idaho. For a more comprehensive listing of the various outreach efforts, please see the meeting list (PDF).

To submit an official public comment on the Gateway West Transmission Line Project, please contact the BLM directly at: 

Bureau of Land Management
Gateway West Project 
P. O. Box 20879 
Cheyenne, WY 82003 

Or e-mail Gateway_West_WYMail@blm.gov

To contact us about this transmission project, please call 801-220-4221 or e-mail ConstructionProjects@pacificorp.com. Please be sure to include the project name – "Populus to Hemingway" –  in your inquiry.


(Updated January 14, 2009)