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After nearly nine years of analysis, the Bonneville Power Administration has decided to not build the costly and controversial high-voltage transmission line known as the I-5 Corridor Reinforcement Project.

The 79-mile-long, 500-kilovolt transmission line would have run from Castle Rock to Troutdale, Ore. It was projected to cost around $722 million and would have been the first major transmission constructed west of the Cascades in about 40 years.

Elliot Mainzer, BPA’s administrator and CEO, said he decided to not build the project after examining its size, rising costs and its local impacts after the release of the project’s final impact statement in February 2016.

Those examinations, in turn, prompted BPA to look more carefully at how it operates its transmission systems and how it forecasts electrical demand, power generation and changes in the market.

As a result, BPA plans to take a more flexible approach to its operations. Now the agency is confident it can meet the region’s power needs without building the line.