Busy Leasburg Road Not Expected to Reopen Until December

On Tuesday, November 10, Duke Energy's East Region Director of Government and Community Relations Beth Townsend told members of Caswell's Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) that it would likely be mid-December before US Highway 158 East between NC Highway 119 and Ridgeville Road is reopened.

The heavily traveled stretch of road has been closed since the morning of Wednesday, October 7, when a generator and its packing frame, weighing more than 750,000 lbs., tipped over while being transported across the county from the Ruffin rail yard to the Duke Energy plant at Hyco Lake.

Caswell's Emergency Management Coordinator Kenneth Everett explained then that the process for recovering, reloading, and moving the generator is complex and requires specialized tools and heavy equipment that are not readily available.

Alan Poteat, who serves as the Assistant Chief of Leasburg Volunteer Fire Department stated that the road closure created a 12.5-mile detour around Leasburg that made it challenging for the fire department. He asked Townsend and North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) District Engineer Jeremy Delapp, who was also at Tuesday's LEPC, meeting to consider, not only ways to make it the road more accessible for emergency vehicles now, while it is closed, but also to consider ways to keep from blocking the full NC-119 and US-158 intersection at the Leasburg Fire Department during future transports.

The generator currently lying on the side of US-158 was the third piece of equipment being transported for the conversion project at Duke Energy's plant at Hyco Lake which will soon transition from coal to natural gas. Officials say another large piece of equipment is waiting for transport.

Delapp said that, from what he understood, this was the first such incident experienced by the transport company, Edwards Moving and Rigging and the oversized/overweight permitting process had not required them to have a plan in place if something went wrong.

Delapp shared that the next oversized/overweight permit would require a recovery plan.

Townsend shared that she had not received any information on how the incident might impact the overall timeline of Duke Energy's project.

About the Project

In February, Duke Energy broke ground on the Person County Energy Complex, located on the Semora Road side of the current plant. The complex will house two new hydrogen-capable natural gas combined-cycle turbines and is expected to be online by late 2028 or early 2029. The first turbine was transported in July, using a different route through the county. The second was transported in mid-September. 

The new facility will ultimately replace the coal-fired plants at both Hyco and Mayo lakes. 

Duke Energy reports that, "by replacing the existing coal units, the new turbines will match the current output and add 270 megawatts of dispatchable electricity to help meet the region’s growth, all while reducing carbon emission rates by 60% per megawatt-hour."

The company anticipates retiring the Mayo Plant in 2031 and the coal-fired Roxboro Plant at Hyco by 2034. The plant at Hyco was first constructed in 1966.