30
Oct
State Electric’s Utility-Power Division recently completed its work at the Everett Substation #37 project while serving as the prime contractor for National Grid. This project entailed a major retrofit of the existing substation while maintaining full-service capabilities. Our work began in December 2016 under the direction of Project Manager Kyle Higginbotham and General Foreman John Ritz. After making good progress over the first two years, Kyle and John were reassigned to other prominent jobs. Project Manager Jim O’Keefe and General Foremen Jim Sheehan took over as project leads and brought the job to completion in October 2019.
State Electric’s scope of work included the installation of two 45/60/75 MVA – 115/24kV transformers, two neutral grounding reactors, two 115kV circuit switchers, two 34.5kV air-break switches, two 115kV strain bus, and a line-up of prefabricated relay and control panels in the new control house. Additionally, to meet the new requirement in the National Grid fencing specifications, we acted as the prime contractor to install a high-security fence.
We faced some unforeseen challenges that our team had to work effectively to overcome. First off, there were below grade obstructions and contaminated foundations and soils throughout the job site. The below-grade obstructions required the T1 and T2 duct banks to be installed at a deeper elevation to avoid potential interferences and the contaminated foundation was remediated. This caused delays in the removal of the existing T1A, T1B, and T2 foundations. The soil contamination was also remediated and caused delays in the installation of below-grade conduit and grounding. Secondly, the removal of devices and wiring from the old control house’s panels and the installation of new cable and devices into the existing control panels proved to be challenging. Extreme concentration and caution were needed so the existing live components were not tripped during the removal and installation processes. Lastly, we had to contend with the National Grid Gas Union work stoppage from May 2018 – December 2018. This prevented us from working on-site and delayed the project during that period. We were forced to reschedule the outages to the Spring of 2019 for the balance of the work.
Our team, that also included Foreman Brian Duhamel, Journeymen Kevin Dill, Clinton Peabody, Mike Sheehan, Mark Dorsey, and Dave Sturgis; Linemen Donny Desmarais and Joe Scalese, and Safety Officers Bob Foster and Tom Somerville, did an excellent job of delivering this sizable substation project for National Grid and overcoming the numerous challenges they were faced with.
