Loading...A couple of weeks ago, we told you about the largest construction project in the history of the United States: Project City Center in Las Vegas. Well, today’s story is on the opposite end of spectrum. One contractor, sic electricians.
Small jobs like today’s story are just as, if not more, important than hospitals and high rises. The majority of the National Electrical Contractors Association is made up of companies that gross less than $5 million a year. Their lifeline is the small construction job – completing them in record time and doing many of them back to back every year.
Today’s story is one of these jobs. Greenway Electrical Services and their IBEW Local 349 craftsmen have carved out a niche in Florida, installing backup emergency generators at high schools and community centers in the event of a hurricane. Tropical storms are all too unpredictable, and when tragedy strikes, this part of our country needs to be prepared. And that’s exactly what the NECA-IBEW team is doing there.
The weather in Miami can be fantastic. Lots of sun, lots of surf, and the beautiful people all come out to enjoy some of the best weather in the Unites States. But it can also be unpredictable.
This area is among the hardest hit in the nation by hurricanes. Camille. Andrew. Donna. Carlo. Hugo. These names strike fear in the heart of any Floridian. In these situations, emergency response is important and at the heart of keeping the most vulnerable safe. That work is done by the NECA-IBEW team.
G. Curtis Duffield, President, Greenway Electrical Services
“By special needs we are talking about people who are on a breathing apparatus, or need to have a kidney machine operational during extended periods when there’s a loss of power, when the situation outside is very dangerous. All those places have to have emergency power, and it needs to be reliable emergency power. They have to have the capacity to run for a number of days, not just for a few hours like most of your standby systems. This is a venue that we’ve found fits out company’s profile.”
When a generator is fired up, especially when lives are on the line, that generator has to come on. And the generators installed by the craftsmen and women in our story today always do.
Tom Jackson, Superintendent, Greenway Electrical Services
“In a time of need, they’re going to need it. It’s 480 volts, and it has to be done right. Miami Dade County building codes are very strict, and their codes for the school department are very strict.”
These generators take care of the electrical needs of people who don’t necessarily need to go to a hospital in an emergency, but need a level of care they won’t receive in a normal shelter.
G. Curtis Duffield, President, Greenway Electrical Services
“These projects are very needful. In the past, we weren’t prepared in the State of Florida to take care of these folks. They tried to take everybody to hospitals, and obviously hospitals can only take care of so many folks.”
Greenway Electric has recently performed work on four of these jobs, all bankrolled by Miami Dade county and all work that was trusted only to the NECA-IBEW team.
Project Manager, Duffy Southeast
“They’ve got the people to bring in. Good, quality folks can make things happen. We have about 90 days to wrap up with Greenway. We’re looking to finish well ahead of that, probably closer to 60 or 70 days.”
These are the kinds of jobs that countless NECA contractors have made their specialty, and with good reason.
Rocky Rothrock, Foreman, Greenway Electrical Services
“Small jobs are what we do pretty much. So it’s all of our work.”
G. Curtis Duffield, President, Greenway Electrical Services
“That’s kind of given our company a niche, and that niche is being able to provide emergency services to our customers during times of hurricane and tornadoes. That allowed this company to make a decision that we wanted to target those areas.”
A disaster can happen anywhere. With the NECA-IBEW team, cities can be assured they’re prepared.
G. Curtis Duffield, President, Greenway Electrical Services
“All these things happen across the country. And just like Greenway Electric, there’s a NECA contractor in just about every locality in the United States. They’re there, and they can serve their customers just like we are able to serve ours. They’re ready, 24 hours a day, seven days a week to pick that phone up and have somebody in a truck on the way to take care of that problem.”
We can’t stress enough the need in this particular story for the NECA-IBEW team to do the job right. They never know when the next hurricane will strike, and when the generator is fired up, it needs to work, because it can be a life and death situation.