News & events

2016-08-03

Environmentalists to work on LitPol Link route

This autumn nature protection specialists will start working on the route of Lithuanian-Polish interconnection LitPol Link. The environmental impact of the link will be monitored in Alytus and Lazdijai districts in the course of three years. This week Litgrid, the power link operator, published a notice of public procurement to select specialists for the provision of the environmental monitoring services.
 
“Any infrastructure has a direct impact upon the environment. Efforts to reduce this impact form an integral part of our work throughout the infrastructure’s lifecycle: starting from planning and construction and ending with normal operation. Thorough assessment of the environment of the power transmission line was conducted in the preparatory phase that lasted four and a half years and environmental supervision was exercised throughout the construction phase. After putting the power link into operation, its environment will be monitored closely by specialists who, if needed, will determine what other additional efforts are needed to minimise the impact,” says Karolis Sankovski, Director of Litgrid‘s Strategic Infrastructure Department.
 
The environmental impact of LitPol Link will be studied over the next three years. The specialists will start the work in the early autumn by watching migrating birds that are abundant at the water bodies adjacent to the transmission line, such as the Žuvintas Lake (the biosphere reserve), the Rimietis Lake and the Simnas Lake. In poor visibility conditions the birds may not notice the wires and hit them. The specialists will study the birds’ accumulations at such places and will make recommendations for increasing the visibility of the wires where necessary. Special visibility-increasing markers and reflectors have already been installed in a section of LitPol Link‘s route during construction. These measures had been planned as early as in 2009, at the beginning of the environmental impact assessment procedures.
 
During the three-year period, the specialists implementing the monitoring programme will keep the areas containing valuable habitats or rare species under observation. Special attention will be paid to the rare species of reptiles and amphibians. Investigations have shown that there might be 11 amphibian species and 6 reptiles species living in the LitPol Link‘s safety zone. The specialists will assess the condition of the habitats and determine the numbers of individuals.
 
In addition, electromagnetic field investigations will be carried out in those parts of the route where the transmission line extends near residential and public buildings.
 
The length of LitPol Link in the territory of Lithuania is 51 km – from Alytus to the Lithuanian–Polish border. The environmental monitoring programme prepared for this project is published in “LitPol Link” section of Litgrid‘s website.