Warm Springs Power Pathway Website

The project required early and sustained public communication around why a new transmission line was being built, how it would affect surrounding communities, and how the public could stay informed and provide feedback.

Before the website existed, there was no centralized or accessible platform explaining the project in plain language. Given that construction would take place on private and tribal lands, the risk of confusion, mistrust, or misinformation was high.

Ensuring clarity and equitable access to information was essential for all audiences.

Squarespace was selected to support long-term client ownership and ease of content updates, but it introduced limitations around advanced interactivity and embedded tools.

The site needed to support an interactive map, a bilingual public survey, and long-term scalability within a CMS environment not designed for heavy customization.

The project also required balancing the priorities of a large utility company and a sovereign tribal nation while maintaining clear, neutral, and accessible public communication.

All work was required to meet WCAG AA and Section 508 standards and follow plain-language best practices.

The site was designed as a flexible microsite capable of evolving over the life of the project. Core requirements included bilingual support, an interactive map, and a structure simple enough for non-technical users to maintain.

Rather than prioritizing heavy interactivity, the focus remained on clarity, accessibility, and long-term maintainability.

Tradeoffs were made to work within Squarespace’s constraints while selectively using custom code where it provided clear value.

Automated translation tools were avoided due to the risk of inaccuracies. Since Spanish was the only required secondary language, Weglot was selected for its editable translations and professional review workflow.