How frustrating it can be to navigate a parking garage to find a place to park your car… …and then struggle to remember where you parked it. Our IBEW/NECA partners are part of a smart solution – the smart garage.  NECA contractor Schaeffer Electric was tapped to provide turnkey services to install advanced electrical/communication infrastructure for Mercy hospital’s smart garage which will open this spring.  “The garage is equipped with an innovative, camera-based system and the latest sensor technology. Bright green and red lights direct patients to open spaces in the garage more quickly, saving time and frustration.” “Clear electronic signage in the garage will highlight how many spaces are open on each level in real time. Once someone chooses a floor, directional signs provide guidance and color-coded indicators display red for occupied, green for open and blue for handicapped, which will further ease the process and remove what can feel like endless circling to find a spot.” The project is the third Schaeffer has installed with the Park Assist system. Others have included the new Wash U Underground garage at the Danforth campus in 2019 and the SSM SLU Hospital Garage in 2020. Learn more.

Our Electrical Connection contractors serve a national client base. Solutions AEC and SAEC Electric provided turn-key MEP design-build services on a distribution center for Contegra Construction and Kansas City-based Jones Development. The 192,000SF facility, located in Cumberland, MD, utilized its IBEW workforce to power the site work and installed lighting, branch power, distribution equipment, fire alarm, temperature control and considerations for future solar provisions. Learn more.

Our IBEW/NECA partners embrace lean construction and continuously look to refine it to bring optimal productivity and efficiency to projects. Such is the case with PayneCrest Electric as it partners with McCarthy on the innovative use of Takt Planning at the $616 million Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) Neuroscience Research Building project slated for completion this summer. According to McCarthy, Takt Planning is a highly visual scheduling tool. It originated in the manufacturing industry to optimize production to meet consumer demand. In construction, a Takt plan is used to align schedules, material deliveries and other factors to reduce downtime and rework.

“Because of the way crews progress through the building, the Takt plan allows us to manage our overall manpower on the project much more efficiently,” says Ryan Freeman, president of PayneCrest Electric, the project’s electrical contractor.  Learn more about the Takt plan in action at the highly complex WUSM Neuroscience Research Building project.