1. Page 7 Salvo Nov. 30, 2012
Largest electrical job
in 30 years is now
complete
By John B. Snyder
When the Arsenal leadership agreed to invest $1.7
million for a new electrical substation that would feed
power to one of the most critical manufacturing processes
called the rotary forge, little did they know that the
Arsenal may be venturing into uncharted waters. But Top: View provides a good sense
thanks to two, no, three Arsenal employees, this huge of the size of job that the Arsenal
undertaking was accomplished without any degradation to electrical engineers managed.
Middle: Jim Uram, an electrical
production. engineering technician and who is
“This was the largest electrical upgrade the Arsenal the right-arm of the Arsenal’s elec-
trical engineer, is discussing the
had experienced in 30 years and the biggest job that I have work with a Pichardo Development
ever personally designed and managed,” said Benjamin Corp. supervisor. Uram was at the
Dedjoe, who is the Arsenal’s electrical engineer. “We site every day of operation.
Bottom: Benjamin Dedjoe, second
replaced 1970s technology with state of the art, computer- from the left and who is the Arse-
driven electrical power equipment that has the capability nal’s electrical engineer, is taking
a minute to discuss the results
to provide power to 450 homes a day.” of the concrete testing with the
This was an extremely complex job that had the contractor’s leadership.
potential to set production back if it wasn’t accomplished
on time, or simply did not work after the substation was
installed, Dedjoe said.
“We had a 31-day window to remove the 1970-
era substation, build a new foundation, install the new
substations, test the circuitry, and then run the first 120mm
tube through for production,” Dedjoe added.
This was no small task for the Arsenal’s lone electrical
engineer and his staff of one, Jim Uram.
While this upgrade was ongoing, Dedjoe and Uram still
had to deal with other jobs such as replacing more than
12,000 feet of damaged underground cables, providing
power to several new machines on a production floor, and
installing digital fire alarms in five buildings, Uram said.
The third, critical person involved in the successful that a business has when attempting to connect a state-
installation of the substation is Connie Turner, the contract of-the-art system to 40-year-old technology. While other
representative for this project. challenges came from a design that looked great on paper
“This project was three years in the making,” Turner but required some minor tweaks in order to make things
said. “It began with the Army Corps of Engineers work. The biggest challenge, however, came from the
contracting a private firm to design the substation, then discovery of an old oil sump under the original foundation.
the project moved to a bidding process where more than “To correctly remove the old oil and storage tank
30 potential bidders visited Watervliet, and work finally correctly, took about two weeks and it was time that
began last August.” wasn’t budgeted for,” Turner said. “Despite that huge
To add to the difficulty of the project, there were seven challenge, the contractor, Pichardo Development Corp.
modifications to the contract, Turner said. from New Jersey, was able to stay on task and complete
Some of the modifications came from the challenges the contract on time.”