Champlain Hudson Power Express®
The Champlain Hudson Power Express® (CHPE) is an innovative underground power transmission project to deliver 1,250 megawatts of clean, renewable hydropower from Canada to New York City. The project includes more than 300 horizontal directional drilling (HDD) bores along the terrestrial route.
Michels completed 12 HDDs ranging from 925 to 5,100 feet to complete critical crossings for a pair of new high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electrical transmission cables with associated telecommunications lines on CHPE. All HDDs were drilled to a diameter of 14 to 36 inches. Once reaming was completed and bore holes were swabbed and prepared for pullback, a 10-in conduit was installed into six alignments, and a 10-in conduit and a 3-in conduit were pulled into the other six alignments. Half of the drills were completed using a rig on each side and the pilot-hole intersect method. The other HDDs were completed with a single rig.
The longest and most challenging HDD crossing for the project was located at the southern end of the CHPE project route. It consisted of two bores approximately 5,100 ft in length, extending from the northeastern edge of Randall’s Island, below the East River, to the northwest corner of Astoria, Queens, and connecting to the duct bank ending at the Astoria Converter Station.
Due to timeline and space constraints, the project featured the first-time use of an interlocking, non-welded pipeline on an HDD rather than a traditional welded pipe string.
CHPE was chosen as the 2025 Project of the Year by Trenchless Technology Magazine.
