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Right of Way · Eminent Domain &On March 26, 2026 Oncor and LCRA Transmission Services Corporation asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas to approve a 765-kilovolt transmission line from Bell County East Switch, about 5.5 miles southeast of Temple, to Big Hill Substation, about 13 miles northeast of Eldorado in Schleicher County. The application put 122 alternative routes on the table, ranging from roughly 214 to 244 miles, across a study area covering 14 counties. This is the largest and most contested of the Texas 765 kV dockets — more than 6,500 filings have been made in it. One route will be chosen. Until the Commission signs an order, every landowner inside that study area is still a candidate.
Almost every condemnation case is a fight about a number, not about the law.
Almost every condemnation case is a fight about a number, not about the law.
A photo of the offer is enough — a senior consultant reads it and tells you what we see.
Text (469) 484-7960 →Four documented matters, each traced from the original offer letter to final settlement — two utility easements and two highway condemnations, labelled on each. Not an average and not a prediction; when we look at yours and think the number is close to right, we tell you so. National ROW is a right-of-way consulting firm, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice.
| Official project name | Bell County East – Big Hill 765 kV Transmission Line Project |
| Applicants | Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC and LCRA Transmission Services Corporation |
| PUCT docket | 59475 |
| Application filed | March 26, 2026 |
| Intervention deadline | April 27, 2026 (passed) |
| Filings in the docket | More than 6,500 — the largest of the Texas 765 kV dockets |
| Current stage | Awaiting a Commission decision. LCRA’s published schedule expects the route to be determined in September 2026. |
| Routes studied | 122 alternative routes |
| Length | Approximately 214 to 244 miles depending on the route chosen; the endpoints are about 199 miles apart |
| From | Bell County East Switch, about 5.5 miles southeast of Temple, Bell County |
| To | Big Hill Substation, about 13 miles northeast of Eldorado, Schleicher County |
| Counties in the study area | 14 |
| Voltage & structures | 765 kV on self-supporting steel lattice towers |
| Right-of-way width | 200 feet, Oncor’s published width for 765 kV |
| Target in service | Summer 2030 |
| Oncor project line | Bell County - Big Hill, project 1022 in Oncor’s public CCN mapping service |
Also searched as: Bell County East to Big Hill 765 kV, Oncor LCRA transmission Temple Texas, Docket 59475 route, 765 kV Williamson County, San Saba transmission line right of way, Hill Country power line easement.
One page showing all 199 corridor links filed in Docket 59475, which counties each one crosses, and how many links touch each county — drawn from Oncor’s own published project data. Print it, take it to your appraisal district, or send it to whoever is advising you. No route has been approved; this is what is on the table.
Download the study-corridor map (Docket 59475)
This line ends at Big Hill Substation, the same point where Big Hill–Sand Lake, Docket 59182 begins. Schleicher and Tom Green County landowners sit in both study areas. The two already-approved segments further north are Dinosaur–Longshore, 59315 and Longshore–Drill Hole, 59029.
Enter an address to see roughly how far it sits from the nearest corridor Oncor and LCRA put on the table. No route has been chosen on this project, so every one of the 122 filed alternatives is still live. Being close to a studied corridor does not mean the line will cross you — and being a few miles off one does not mean it will not.
Related reading: what we do on a transmission line easement and the full Texas 765 kV docket tracker.
Tell us about your property. A senior consultant reads every one of these and calls you within the hour, 8am–6pm Central, Monday to Friday. Outside those hours, first thing the next morning.
Your case is in review. A senior consultant reads everything you shared and calls you within the hour, 8am–6pm Central, Monday to Friday. Outside those hours, first thing the next morning.
In the meantime, don't sign anything and don't feel pressured to respond to their representatives.
The application names 14 Texas counties. We measured the 199 corridor links Oncor has actually published against county boundaries: they reach 11 of those 14. Coryell, Llano and Milam are named in the case style but no filed link touches them. No route has been chosen, so a tract anywhere inside a filed corridor can still end up on the line.
Bell County carries 65 of the 199 filed links, San Saba 42, Burnet 33 and Williamson 30 — that is where the corridors concentrate, and it is also where land is worth the most on this entire 765 kV program. A 200-foot corridor across a Georgetown or Belton acreage tract is a different valuation problem from the same corridor across West Texas rangeland, and it is the problem this docket is mostly about.
Running west from Temple toward Big Hill in Schleicher County, ordered by how many of the 199 filed corridor links touch each county.
Find your county below and tap it to open.
The line starts here at Bell County East Switch, about five and a half miles southeast of Temple, and Bell carries 65 of the 199 filed links — a third of the whole corridor set. Blackland Prairie row-crop ground, irrigated bottoms, and a fast-thickening ring of acreage tracts around Temple, Belton and Salado. On land priced for its development horizon, damages to the remainder is usually a bigger number than the strip.
The most expensive dirt on the entire Texas 765 kV program. Georgetown, Round Rock, Hutto and Taylor are absorbing subdivision growth outward, and a 200-foot corridor across a tract with a platting future does not just take acres — it takes the part of the value that comes from what the land was going to become. Highest and best use is the argument here, and an agricultural comparable is not the right measure.
42 filed links, second only to Bell. Pecan bottoms along the San Saba and Colorado rivers, hunting leases, and river-frontage tracts. Pecan orchards are a permanent planting: a corridor through one destroys decades of establishment, and the replacement cost of mature trees is a cost-to-cure item that a per-acre offer ignores entirely.
33 links. Highland Lakes country — Lake Buchanan, granite hills, and recreational and second-home tracts that sell on view and privacy. When a transmission corridor crosses the ridgeline a buyer was paying for, the loss shows up in the remainder, not in the easement acres.
28 links across Edwards Plateau ranch country on the Llano and San Saba drainages. Hunting lease income here is documentable and material, and a corridor through a pasture reduces the lease value of the pasture, not merely the strip.
21 links. Brady sits near the geographic centre of Texas, and the corridors converge here. Mixed ranching, hunting and dryland farming, with wind and solar interest that competes with transmission for the same open, close-to-line ground.
Granite and live oak ranch country with strong recreational demand and a growing wine and orchard economy. Small acreage and permanent plantings are the exposure: on a 40-acre tract a 200-foot corridor is a far larger proportion of the property than on a section of rangeland.
The line ends here at Big Hill Substation, the same point where the Big Hill–Sand Lake project, Docket 59182, begins. A Schleicher County landowner can be inside both study areas at once, on two separate dockets, with two separate sets of land agents. Check the docket number on anything you receive.
Five filed links across farm and ranch ground on the Concho River. Small county, thin corridor coverage, but a tract inside one of those five links is exposed exactly like any other.
Four links clipping the county. Hill Country ranchettes and grazing land within commuting reach of Killeen and Austin, which is why the acreage market here is stronger than the grass would suggest.
One filed link. Tom Green also sits in the Big Hill–Sand Lake study area to the west, so a letter here needs its docket number read carefully before anyone assumes which project it belongs to.
Named in the case style with no filed corridor reaching it — we checked all 199 published links against county boundaries. If something has arrived in Coryell County, it is worth identifying which project it actually belongs to before responding.
Also named with no filed link reaching it. Llano is surrounded by counties that are on the corridor set, so it is worth watching the docket rather than assuming it is settled.
Named in the case style, no filed link. The nearest corridors run through Bell and Williamson to the west and south.
This corridor is different in kind from the West Texas segments. Out there the argument is about rangeland, oilfield surface and irrigation. Here it runs through pecan orchards, lake country, hunting leases and the outer edge of the Austin–Temple growth corridor — places where the land has a use worth more than grass, and where a first offer built on agricultural comparables misses most of the value.
We will tell you where your land sits against the filed corridors — and what a first offer on a 765 kV taking usually leaves out.
Free review by a senior consultant →Or call or text (469) 484-7960 — a senior consultant answers owners the same day.
Electric load in the Permian Basin has grown faster than the transmission built to serve it. Oilfield operations that once ran on diesel and field gas now run on grid power, and large new loads — processing, compression, water handling, and increasingly data centers — have queued up in a part of Texas whose transmission backbone was designed for a much smaller demand.
The Legislature directed ERCOT to plan for that growth, and ERCOT’s Permian Basin reliability planning concluded that the region needed a step change rather than more of the same. The Public Utility Commission of Texas then decided the backbone would be built at 765 kilovolts — the first lines at that voltage anywhere in Texas. Bell County East–Big Hill is one segment of that backbone.
The practical consequence for a landowner is that this is not a project that gets cancelled. The need has been decided at the state level; what remains open in Docket 59475 is which of 122 filed corridors the Commission picks, and after that, what each affected owner is paid.
765 kV also means bigger hardware than most Texas landowners have dealt with. Oncor builds these on self-supporting steel lattice towers inside a 200-foot permanent easement — roughly five times the height of an ordinary distribution pole, on a strip about two-thirds the width of a football field is long.
Docket 59475 is the largest of the Texas 765 kV cases and it is close to a decision. Here is where it stands and what follows.
Tap any step to see what happens.
Oncor and LCRA TSC mapped a study area across 14 counties, held public meetings and developed 122 alternative routes from 199 corridor links. Landowner comments filed at this stage genuinely moved routes.
Docket 59475 opened. The applicants asked for a certificate of convenience and necessity for a 765 kV line from Bell County East Switch near Temple to Big Hill Substation near Eldorado.
The date by which a landowner had to formally intervene to become a party. That date has passed, which affects your standing in the routing case — it does not affect your right to be paid just compensation for a taking.
More than 6,500 filings have been made in this docket, the great majority of them by individual landowners, county governments and community groups opposing particular segments.
LCRA’s published schedule expects the route to be determined this month. The order is what turns a study area into a centerline, and it is the moment your tract either is or is not on the line.
Land agents ask for written permission to enter and survey. This is the first document most owners are asked to sign, it is negotiable, and it is where a great deal of leverage is given away for nothing.
The company orders an appraisal and makes a written offer. Under Texas law that offer has to be a bona fide offer — a procedural standard, not a promise that the number is right.
The company files, three special commissioners are appointed, and they hold a hearing on value. Either side can object to the award and take it to court.
Oncor’s published target for completion.
A 200-foot permanent easement across a mile of your property is a little over 24 acres inside the strip alone. On this corridor the strip is rarely the expensive part, because the land it crosses is worth more than rangeland and the things it damages are worth more than grass.
A transmission easement is not a sale of the strip. You still own it, still pay taxes on it, and still cannot build on it, plant tall crops in it, or put permanent structures in it. On grazing land that costs little; on an orchard, a homesite, a lake-view tract or ground with a platting future, it costs a great deal.
In Williamson and Bell counties the market is not pricing grass. It is pricing what the tract will be in five or ten years. A 200-foot corridor across the buildable frontage can take the part of the property the whole price was based on, and an appraisal built on agricultural comparables will not show that. Highest and best use is a valuation question, and on this corridor it is often the whole argument.
San Saba and Mason counties carry pecan orchards, vineyards and other permanent plantings. Mature trees are not replaced by a per-acre figure. Establishment cost, lost production during re-establishment, and the effect on the rest of the block are all cost-to-cure and remainder items.
Burnet and Llano county tracts sell on view, water and privacy. Steel lattice towers up to roughly 200 feet tall are visible for miles across Hill Country terrain. Where a buyer was paying for an unbroken ridgeline, the loss is real, it is measurable in comparable sales, and it belongs in damages to the remainder.
Across Menard, McCulloch, Mason and Concho counties, hunting lease income is a documentable revenue stream. A corridor through a pasture affects the lease value of that pasture, not merely the acres inside the easement. If you have lease history, it is evidence.
Construction on a 765 kV line is heavy. Tower foundations, crane pads, pulling sites and access roads sit outside the permanent strip under a temporary construction easement that is negotiated separately and routinely priced as an afterthought. Where those roads cross your gates, ranch roads, cattle guards, fences and creek crossings, the terms belong in writing.
On the Blackland Prairie row-crop ground in Bell, Williamson and Milam, a corridor that cuts diagonally across a field costs you turn rows, efficiency and the shape of the remainder for as long as the line stands. That is a remainder damage, not a strip price.
A senior consultant will walk your numbers with you — the easement acreage, what it does to the remainder, and the value the first offer tends to leave on the table. No cost and no obligation.
Free review by a senior consultant →Or call or text (469) 484-7960 — a senior consultant answers owners the same day.
Once the Commission signs an order and your tract is on the chosen route, the sequence is survey, appraisal, written offer. Under Texas Property Code Chapter 21 that first written offer has to be a bona fide offer supported by an appraisal. Bona fide is a procedural test. It does not mean the number is correct, and it does not mean the appraisal looked at everything it should have.
| Component | What it pays for | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| Value of the part acquired | The strip itself, priced per acre against comparable sales | Largest single line |
| Damages to the remainder | Lost value to everything you keep — severance, access, layout, irrigation, marketability | Frequently understated |
| Cost to cure | What it costs to fix what the taking broke — fences, gates, cattle guards, crossings, reseeding, drainage | Often omitted entirely |
| Temporary construction easement | Extra ground used during construction, separate from the permanent strip | Priced as an afterthought |
An offer that consists of one per-acre number multiplied by the acres in the strip has quietly priced three of those four lines at zero.
Eight things that are compensable, that landowners on Central Texas takings routinely are not paid for, and that a per-acre offer does not address.
Tap each one to see what it means on your tract.
A 200-foot high-voltage corridor can reduce the market value of your whole tract, not just the strip. On Central Texas acreage that effect is usually larger than the easement payment itself.
In Bell and Williamson counties the land is priced on what it will become. A corridor across the buildable frontage takes that, and an agricultural comparable will not show it.
Pecan orchards and vineyards are decades of establishment. Replacement cost, lost production and the effect on the remaining block are all compensable and routinely omitted.
Hill Country and Highland Lakes tracts sell on view. Towers up to roughly 200 feet tall across a ridgeline show up in comparable sales, not in a per-acre offer.
Where their trucks enter, how often, and what happens to your gates, ranch roads, cattle guards, fences and creek crossings during and after construction.
Extra ground taken during construction — pads, pulling sites and access — negotiated separately from the permanent strip and routinely underpriced.
Hunting leases, grazing leases, and solar or wind options. A corridor across the tract affects the lease, not just the easement acres.
Texas Tax Code § 23.55(f) provides that rollback tax sanctions do not apply when the change of use results from a sale for right-of-way or from a condemnation. Confirm it with your own appraisal district — and ask separately what the corridor does to ag use on the remainder.
Send it over with their appraisal if they gave you one — a photo of the pages is enough. A senior consultant reads it and tells you what their number left out, what we would argue for, and whether it can be moved.
Free review by a senior consultant →Or call or text (469) 484-7960 — a senior consultant answers owners the same day.
We are on the owner's side of the right-of-way. We are paid out of the increase, which means we do not get paid unless you do better.
Send us whatever they sent you — a survey permission form, a letter, an appraisal, an offer. We read it and tell you plainly where it is weak. No charge, no obligation.
We bring in independent, certified appraisers to value the part acquired and, critically, to document damages to the remainder and cost to cure.
We deal with the land agents and their appraisers directly, with documentation behind every number, so you are not negotiating alone against people who do this full time.
Our fee is a percentage of the increase above the original offer. If we do not improve it, you owe us nothing.
Tap any question to see the answer.
No. As of September 9, 2026 there is no final order in PUCT Docket 59475, and Oncor’s own public mapping service still shows all 199 filed corridor links on this project as proposed rather than approved. LCRA’s published schedule expects the route to be determined in September 2026.
You lost party status in the routing case. You did not lose your right to just compensation. If the chosen route crosses your land, the company still has to make a bona fide written offer supported by an appraisal, and you can still negotiate it, reject it, and take it to special commissioners. Those are two different things and land agents sometimes let owners confuse them.
Oncor’s published right-of-way width for 765 kV is approximately 200 feet. The structures are self-supporting steel lattice towers, typically 155 to 160 feet tall, with an estimated maximum of just under 200 feet. An ordinary distribution pole is about 34 feet above ground, so these are roughly five times that.
It should be. Bell and Williamson counties carry 95 of the 199 filed links and the most valuable land on the entire 765 kV program. On a tract whose price reflects development potential, the strip is a small part of the loss and the damage to the remainder is the main event. An appraisal built on agricultural comparables will systematically understate that, which is exactly the kind of offer worth having reviewed.
Survey permission is a document you are asked to sign, and what it allows is negotiable — who comes, when, what they may do, what they must restore, and what notice you get. Signing the form as presented is the most common way a landowner gives up leverage before the conversation about money has even started.
Possibly both. This line ends at Big Hill Substation, and the Big Hill–Sand Lake project, Docket 59182, begins at the same point. Landowners near Big Hill can sit inside two study areas at once, on two separate dockets, with two different sets of land agents. The docket number on the paperwork is what tells you which.
Coryell, Llano and Milam are named in the case style and no filed link reaches them — we measured all 199 published links against county boundaries. That does not make them irrelevant: corridors get combined and shifted between the filing and the final order. Checking your address against the studied corridors on this page takes a few seconds and costs nothing.
Nothing up front. We work on contingency — our fee is a percentage of the additional compensation we secure above their first offer. If it does not move, you owe us nothing. We are owner-side only, nationwide, since the 1980s, and we have never worked for a condemning agency or utility. We are not a law firm and not a tax advisor; legal counsel is coordinated when your case requires it.
Survey permission form, letter, appraisal, easement draft, offer — whatever stage you are at, we will read it and tell you where it is weak. Free, and there is no obligation to go further.
Free review by a senior consultant →Or call or text (469) 484-7960 — we answer owners the same day.
County lists and study-area figures on this page were taken from the applicants’ own filings in PUCT Docket 59475 and from Oncor’s published project materials, and the corridors drawn on the map are read live from Oncor’s public CCN mapping service. No route has been approved, so no mileage-by-county figures are given — they do not exist yet.
