Ameren held a pair of open house events on Oct. 22 to help Montgomery and Warren County residents be informed about the 22-mile Crossroads Connector Project that will start construction next year.

The open houses were held at the Mary Lou Community Center in Truesdale and the Jonesburg Community Building. Numerous Ameren employees were at both places to answer questions about the two-phase project.

The first phase of the project is four miles long and will run through the New Florence area. The second phase is 18 miles long and starts at New Florence and ends at Warrenton.

Harman Ormani, who is the project manager for Phase 2, said there were mixed feelings about the project, which led Ameren to set up an event that would give residents an opportunity to share their input.

“People wanted to learn about the project,” Ormani said. “That’s why we had an open house to give them a chance to know about the project.”

The Truesdale open house ran during the morning and the Jonesburg open house ran during the evening. Both open houses featured a large map of the Crossroads Connector Project. There was no formal presentation in either of them.

Many people at the open houses asked whether the transmission line construction related to powering data centers and whether those facilities were paying the project cost, Ormani said.

“So the main drive, the main purpose of this transmission line is to meet the growing energy demand in the area from these data centers,” he said, adding, however, that the project would also improve transmission reliability for everyone else in the region.

“And Missouri Senate Bill 4, they’re requiring all the data centers to pay the cost up front for their facility for all the materials and constructing facilities to extend power to their location,” he said.

The Jonesburg open house was better attended than the Truesdale event, with more than 60 people compared to just over a dozen in Truesdale, Ormani said.

“We generally just look for venues in the area that would be pretty centrally located and where the project is going to take place,” Ameren Communications Manager Evan Asher said.

There are four substations in the project — Montgomery, Lumberjack, Nightingale and Float. The Montgomery, Lumberjack and Nightingale substations will be located in the New Florence area, while Float will be located near Warrenton.

Phase 1 includes constructing four miles of new 345 kV double circuit transmission line to connect the new Lumberjack substation southeast of New Florence to the existing Montgomery-Callaway 345 kV transmission line located west of the city. It will have a single steel, self-supporting monopole that will be between 100 and 140 feet.

Phase 2 includes constructing 18 miles of new 345 kV double circuit transmission line and the Float substation. The new line will connect the Float substation to the new Nightingale and Lumberjack substations.

“The project was first developed towards the end of last year,” Ormani said. “That’s when the discussion started. After that, it went through a study in the area and how much capacity that Ameren has for the new development in the area and what needs to be done.”

Leslie Tindall, Ameren’s Project Manager for Phase 1, said the project will strengthen the energy grid to improve dependability for all customers in the area.

“I think one thing to realize is it helps the reliability in the area,” she said. “We tell them we’re willing to work with them on their land and the location of the underland. I think it opens it up to more positivity.”

Ormani said some of those in attendance at the open houses simply wanted to know more about the project in general.

“Other people, the line was going close to their property and they wanted to know more details about the type of structures, where the structures will be located, so we answered all their questions. We had all the subject matter experts in the room with us,” he said.

Ormani said several people told him they were thankful for the opportunity to learn more about the project.

Pre-construction work will start in 2027. The project is scheduled to be in service the following year.

Warren County Record Editor Jonathan Riley contributed to this story.