Ameren Illinois and the city of East Peoria will reroute high-voltage electrical wires so they no longer run under a varsity baseball field at EastSide Centre.
The issue was discovered as preparations got underway last month to install fully synthetic turf.
"I found it kind of scary, very interesting at the very least, that there are three lines that carry 13,200 volts coming up," city commissioner Seth Mingus said. "Those lines are not in conduit. They are just bare wire that are buried underneath the ground."
The lines run behind home plate, through the first base dugout, then exit the field headed east towards an electrical junction. In some places, the wires are less than two feet below the surface of Baseball Diamond 10.
"You could easily dig that with a shovel and not realize that you were getting that deep," Mingus said.
A transformer currently lies behind the field 10 backstop. The plan is to move that transformer behind the field 9 backstop so more spectator seating can be added at the varsity field.
The city is set to pay $25,600 to Koener Electric to reroute the lines, and Ameren will pull the lines to the new transformer for a little over $16,240. The city council approved both measures on their first readings at their Tuesday meeting.
Mingus said one advantage is that the new electrical route will lie under concrete instead of turf. That will make surface replacement less expensive if Ameren needs to dig to access the lines at some point.
