Take a Look at Belmont's New Substation

Still a few years before its up and running, at least now Belmont residents now knows what the town's new electrical substation will look like as the Planning Board approved a site plan review of Belmont Light's state-of-the-art facility to be located at 20 Flanders Road, part of the proposed project to upgrade electrical service to Belmont.

"[This design] has come a long way from where we started," said Planning Board Chairman Michael Battista of the industrial brick design by NELSON, the Philadelphia-based architectural firm with offices in Boston.

The brick building will have some landscaping along the side closest to the Cambridge city line. 

While a special Town Meeting in February 2012 approved the $53.7 million project, an agreement to sell the new transmission line back to main electrical supplier NSTAR will be cut the town's total cost of the project to $30 million. 

Plans call for the demolition of the existing commercial space beginning in the next few months with the substation completed sometime in 2016 with it going on line late that year or early 2017, according to Belmont Light's General Manager James Palmer. 

The substation will replace two current facilities on Concord Avenue and one adjacent to the Chenery Middle School.