One of O’Connell’s largest substation construction projects to date, Gardenville Station was a large 115 kV rebuild project in western New York that we served as the prime contractor on. The station handles about one third of the Buffalo metro area’s power, including major customers such as Ford and Tesla. The project consisted of full site development including environmental controls, site work, approximately 500 foundations, 38 large diameter caissons for T-line structures and a new control building.
In addition, we also performed the full electrical scope which included:
- Complete build-out of a 14-bay, 115 kV breaker and a half station.
- AC/DC station service including indoor and outdoor switchgear lineups and a 500 kW generator.
- 200 relay/control panels and associated cabling/terminations.
- Relocation of seventeen 115 kV lines and installation of five 115 kV substation bus ties, including eight circuits that ran through the middle of the new station footprint.
- Installation of two 115 kV, 5000 kcmil XLPE underground circuits and associated duct bank.
- Demolition of three existing substations.
Due to the size and scope of this project in the Western, NY region, it was considered very high profile. Executives and senior managers from AVANGRID and National Grid visited the site several times. Our General Foreman and the project team received numerous commendations for our quality of work and safety program.
The project took 18 months to complete and was still finished six months ahead of schedule. Not including subcontractors, O’Connell’s labor force accumulated over 80,000 man hours of work.
By The Numbers:
14-bay station
1.5 million pounds of structural steel (not including control building or T-line structures)
500,000 feet of cable (nearly 100 miles)
50,000 feet of ground grid (10 miles)
500 foundations
38 large diameter caissons
100 115 kV disconnect switches, 78 CCVTs
12,000 sqft control building
200 relay/control panels
20,000 wire terminations
Gardenville Substation was featured in Electrical Contractor Magazine, August 2018
