One PATH proposed route could have run along this existing right-of-way, which cuts through Morgan's Grove Park and the Colonial Hills housing development.

Power company officials say the Shepherdstown area is now off the map of proposed routes for the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) project.

During an interview at Allegheny Energy’s Martinsburg offices on Wilson Street, Allegheny and American Electric Power (AEP) officials announced a new proposed route for the high-voltage lines that would traverse a roughly east-to-west route through the southern portion of Jefferson County just north of Rippon and parallel existing high-voltage lines.

A new round of public meetings about PATH is also planned.

AEP’s Ron Poff and Allegheny’s Vernon Estel — both transmission project managers for their respective companies — said the new route will eliminate an earlier plan to connect with a substation in Bedington in Berkeley County. The earlier planned route would have traversed portions of Morgan, Berkeley and northern Jefferson counties. New plans do not include Berkeley or Morgan, but would connect a Mt. Storm, W.Va., power facility to Frederick County, Md.

Power company officials plan to submit a preferred route plan to public service commissions in West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland by March. That would begin a roughly year-long review process to include more public hearings, Estel said. AEP and Allegheny hope to have the new 500,000-volt transmission line in service by June 2013.

The new proposed powerline route runs east-west in southern Jefferson County.

Public 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Open Houses are planned Dec. 2 at the Stonewall Elementary School in Clear Brook, Va.; Dec. 3 at the Washington High School in Charles Town; and Dec. 4 at the Holiday Inn & Conference Center in Frederick, Md.

— To view documents or make comments online, visit the PATH Web site at

pathtransmission.com.