• Posted: July 7, 2020
• better construction

Powering Chicago’s second quarter saw the industry weather significant challenges brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak, while still providing Chicago and Cook County with power for critical infrastructure projects and facilities. Union electricians and contractors continued to operate as close to normal as possible while adhering to a variety of new safety standards to limit the spread of the virus.

In an effort to prepare for the future, while also protecting today’s members, the IBEW-NECA Technical Institute recently implemented new safety protocols throughout the facility to ensure electrical apprentices are practicing social distancing, wearing the correct PPE at all times, and minimizing interactions outside of the classroom by staggering start times. Gene Kent, the director of the apprenticeship program, said, “I feel the apprenticeship is the best way to train new electricians going into the field. This could be a new normal and a higher level of safety consideration may be needed.”

IBEW Local 134 electricians and members from the Electrical Contractors’ Association of City of Chicago also stepped up efforts in their communities as things took a turn for the worse by ensuring PPE was provided to those who needed it most. In addition, Powering Chicago members helped IBEW retirees get food and other supplies needed when it was ill-advised for the most vulnerable to step outside.  

Powering Chicago Members Provide Much Needed PPE to Frontline COVID-19 Responders

N95 masks are a standard piece of equipment on many of the job sites where Powering Chicago members work, and with a surplus available, a number of contractors from the ECA have put their supplies to good use. On the city’s north side, Swedish Covenant Hospital received 1,000 N95 masks from Continental Electric, which also recently donated 1,000 plastic face shields to the West Suburban 3D Face Shield Printers group.

When Elgin’s Sherman Hospital was set to reopen in late April, a portion of the face shields from Continental were immediately sent there. Working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a variety of other groups, Continental helped prepare the facility to be reopened to care for COVID-19 patients after it sat vacant for more than a decade. Joining Continental in donating PPE were Sharlen Electric, Gurtz Electric, and Super Electric, which have provided N95 masks and gloves to a number of hospitals in the metro area.

In addition, Super Electric has provided meals to those on the frontlines since the outbreak in Chicagoland began. In the broader construction industry, the Construction Safety Council has also played a leadership role through the donation of N95 masks originally intended for use during the organization’s training programs.

Sammy Cozzo, an IBEW Local 134 fourth-year apprentice, took one of Powering Chicago’s core principles, better communities, to heart when he and his friend began using their 3D printers to make masks for frontline responders. In April, Cozzo and Carlos Salinas explained how they’ve been using their machines 24/7 in an effort to produce as many masks as possible.

“It’s nonstop at this point, they’re running 24/7,” Cozzo said. “I wake up every few hours so I can check on the machines and see if they need anything. Otherwise, they’re running all the time. We deliver on the weekends.”

Cozzo and Salinas decided they would not charge for the masks and instead asked for donations that could be put back into materials to produce more. When Powering Chicago spoke to the two in late April, they had produced more than 3,000 protective masks.

Powering Chicago Details Post-COVID Workplace in Webinar

Masks and other protective measures have helped Chicagoans get to a point where a return to their offices could be fast approaching. But with social distancing becoming an ever-present part of our lives, many are wondering what a post-COVID workplace will look like. Powering Chicago recently sponsored a webinar through the Illinois Real Estate Journal to answer that question

Powering Chicago Director, Elbert Walters III, who moderated the panel, was joined by experts from the Chicago area and beyond, including Josh Bone, executive director of industry innovation for NECA; Thomas Pedergnana, vice president of Malko Communication Services; Michael Berger, principal and director of interiors at G|R|E|C Architects; and Steven Bauer, executive director at Cushman & Wakefield. For almost an hour, the panelists provided their perspectives on where the commercial real estate market is headed locally and how office spaces can be updated for life in a COVID-19 world. You can watch the full discussion here, and we encourage you to do so, but we also wanted to share a few key takeaways for those short on time. 

After years of reducing the size of workspaces to get more people into office, we’re on the verge of a new era as companies work to de-densify their office spaces and spread out to maintain social distancing when employees return. In addition to platooning employees and staggering schedules to reduce the number of people in close proximity in the office on a day-to-day basis, GREC Architects’ Michael Berger anticipates that many companies will rethink their spaces to make better use of the square footage available to them. Rather than devoting extra square footage to conference rooms, huddle space, phone rooms and other shared amenities, workstations themselves are likely to expand and be dedicated spaces for employees, eliminating hoteling models and returning office spaces to the way they looked 10-15 years ago. 

“It’s going to change and it’s going to adapt so that people feel safer in the office, but we don’t need to shut down downtown Chicago [permanently],” Berger said. “Right now it’s about adapting some of the standards and thinking about the way that we circulate the space, which is not something that we ever really thought about as much before. It’s also certainly about making people aware of what you’re doing [to modify the office layout] so they feel comfortable [returning].”

Powering Chicago Member Aldridge Electric Helps Maintain Metro Chicago’s Power Grid

In recent months as millions of Americans have sheltered in place, the importance of a stable power supply has become crystal clear. With the vast majority of our communications now confined to the virtual realm, the ability to charge devices and connect to the internet is a basic necessity. On a larger scale, a stable power supply is absolutely vital to the health of the economy. While flipping on a light switch or powering up a piece of machinery on a factory floor is easy to take for granted, the reality is that delivering the power that makes this possible requires the contributions of a vast number of skilled electricians and contractors like Powering Chicago member Aldridge Electric.

Based in Libertyville, Aldridge manages electrical substation projects throughout the Chicago metro area and across the country in states like Wisconsin, California, Nevada and New York, among others. At any given time, Aldridge is working on four to 10 projects across multiple states, ensuring that substations are operating correctly to transmit and distribute power where it needs to go. This means maintaining the equipment needed to convert power and break it down from voltages as high as 765,000 before it’s distributed. Working with extremely high voltages requires specialized skills and experience that is generally earned only through years in the field. For that reason, many of the electricians Aldridge employs are well into their careers as journeymen.

“Most of the wireman that I end up taking already have some medium voltage experience, which would be 12 kV or 34 kV,” says Kevin Kiehn, substation superintendent for Aldridge Electric. “Generally, that experience is from high voltage terminations they’ve done in a high rise building or an industrial plant, for example.”

Powering Chicago members have accomplished all of this while continuing to operate on the job site with the consistency, reliability, and safety its customers have come to expect. In these times, Powering Chicago members have lived up to their core principles: better construction, better careers, and better communities.