The Hine’s emerald dragonfly is an endangered species and in jeopardy of becoming extinct. Identifying, protecting, and restoring endangered and threatened species is the primary objective of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species program – and ComEd is working alongside the Service to help preserve the Hine’s emerald dragonfly.
Recently ComEd crews completed the removal of electrical equipment from the Forest Preserve District near the home of the dragonfly in Will County’s Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve in Lockport Township.
Removing the equipment from the preserve protects the dragonfly and also helps ComEd improve power reliability to its customers by enabling crews to more easily perform regular maintenance on its equipment built outside of the delicate prairieland.
To ensure that the project did not impact customers, prior to the start of the project in November, ComEd built electrical equipment west of the preserve to maintain services for customers in the Lockport Township area.
ComEd’s engineers, project managers, environmental specialists and external affairs members planned this project for many years in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The project was completed in January.
“There’s lots of moving parts to a project of this size,” says Philip Workman, principle project manager, ComEd. “It not only involves technical expertise, but it also involves social expertise in working with government and law enforcement from the nearby communities to keep everybody informed of all aspects of the project from beginning to end.”
Watch the video to get a first-hand look at how ComEd crews collaborated on this project from November through January 2017 – the best timeframe to avoid disrupting the habitat.
