City of Greenville 10/ /2012

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City of Greenville Utility Underground Pilot Program Regional Vice President DeWayne Brown, PE, PLS 12/7/2012 X 1318-F Patton Ave. Asheville NC 28806 828 253-2796 828 253-4864 ldbrown@vaughnmelton.

1 City of Greenville Utility Underground Pilot Program Regional Vice President DeWayne Brown, PE, PLS 12/7/2012 X 1318-F Patton Ave. Asheville NC ldbrown@vaughnmelton.com Greenville SC City of Greenville 10/ / Million 1.2 Million Nancy Sue Utility Program Manager Office Manager Vaughn & Melton Consulting Engineers, Inc. Jerry A. Carter, PE, PLS 206 South Main Street 12/6/ East Blackstock Rd. Suite 7 Spartanburg SC jacarter@vaughnmelton.com Hillary Cole hdcole@vaughnmelton.com Greenville SC nsue@greenvillesc.gov NA NA

2 December 5, 2012 To: American Council of Engineering Companies of South Carolina (ACEC-SC) Re: City of Greenville Utility Undergrounding Pilot Project The City of Greenville selected Vaughn & Melton Consulting Engineers (V&M) to provide surveying, subsurface utility engineering (S.U.E.), utility coordination and construction plans and specifications services for a pilot project to underground (bury) all the overhead utilities in a 12-way duct bank to be operated by Duke Energy. The two corridors chosen for this project were; 6,200 linear feet of Haywood Road, from Haywood Crossing Drive to Pelham Road, and 5,700 linear feet of Augusta Street from Church Street to East Augusta Place. Ultimately, a half mile section of Haywood Road was constructed from I-385 to south of Wood Crossing Road. Duke Energy proposed this plan to the City of Greenville to bury lines in areas particularly vulnerable to outages as a remedy to alleviate the damage wreaked on power lines by strong winds or ice storms. Greenville was the City they approached in South Carolina with this pilot idea because it was one of the hardest hit cities by power outages following recent massive ice storms. The previous ice storm knocked out power to a million local people; some were without power for weeks. The City and Duke Energy came to a funding agreement to begin the process of burying overhead power. It was decided that the undergrounding program would be funded by an extra 1% Duke Energy franchise fee to the City matched by an additional 0.5% donated by Duke. V&M successfully completed utility coordination by working closely with Duke Energy, AT&T, Charter Communications, South Carolina Department of Transportation, Piedmont Natural Gas and the City of Greenville. V&M s most important task on this project was to minimize impacts to the existing underground utilities and to ensure that the overhead utilities could be buried without interruption of service to customers. V&M also completed the surveying, S.U.E., utility coordination and final plan preparation in less than seven months which was an incredible feat considering the various agencies and stakeholders involved in the process! In addition these projects were located in heavily urbanized environments making it imperative that the V&M staff work quickly and efficiently to minimize the effect on businesses and vehicular and pedestrian traffic. V&M staff ended up locating underground utilities covering over seven different utility owners including; phone lines, fiber optic cable, cable TV, sewer lines, water lines, and natural gas mains. By the end of the utility locations they had located approximately 6 linear miles of underground utilities covering 18 city blocks! V&M exceeded our expectations and needs by providing us with this cost saving measure quickly, efficiently, and correctly. Seriously Yours, Nancy Sue City of Greenville Utility Program Manager

3 Project Title: City of Greenville Utility Undergrounding Pilot Project Category I: Special Projects - Subsurface Engineering EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The City of Greenville selected Vaughn & Melton Consulting Engineers (V&M) to provide surveying, subsurface utility engineering (S.U.E.), utility coordination and construction plans and specifications services for a pilot project to underground (bury) all the overhead utilities in a 12-way duct bank to be operated by Duke Energy. The two corridors chosen for these projects were 6,200 linear feet of Haywood Road and 5,700 linear feet of Augusta Street. Ultimately, a half mile section of Haywood Road was constructed from I-385 to south of Wood Crossing Road. This section involved undergrounding a major single-pole electric transmission line with electric distribution and multiple telecom utilities attached as well. Duke Energy proposed this plan to the City to bury lines in areas particularly vulnerable to outages as a remedy to alleviate the damage wreaked on power lines by strong winds or ice storms. Greenville was the City they approached in South Carolina with this pilot idea because it was one of the hardest hit cities by power outages following recent massive ice storms. The previous ice storm knocked out power to a million local people; some were without power for weeks. The City and Duke Energy came to a funding agreement to begin the process of burying overhead power. It was decided that the undergrounding program would be funded by an extra 1% Duke Energy franchise fee to the City matched by an additional 0.5% donated by Duke. Since this project was the first of its kind in South Carolina for Duke Energy, it presented unique challenges, problems and issues to Duke, the City of Greenville, other affected utilities and stakeholders. The City on the behalf of all of these entities, selected V&M as the foremost qualified firm to coordinate the resolution of any and all project challenges. V&M had to strategize and compile a plan to successfully and seamlessly complete utility coordination with numerous entities at once including; Duke Energy, AT&T, Charter Communications, SCDOT, Piedmont Natural Gas and the City of Greenville. V&M s staff was also tasked with minimizing impacts to the existing underground utilities while ensuring that the overhead utilities could be buried without interruption of service to the customers along this corridor. In order to minimize the impacts to existing infrastructure through this commercial corridor, V&M obtained depths of the existing utilities, storm drains and commercial sign foundations by using a combination of conventional surveying, ground penetrating radar and non-destructive vacuum excavation. With this accurate location and elevation of the existing infrastructure, we were able to establish the proposed profiles of the duct bank and six directional bores in such a manner that no major utility cables or mains, or any other major infrastructure, would be impacted by the construction. In spite of these logistic issues, V&M was able to complete this project in less than seven months which was an incredible feat considering the various agencies, utilities and stakeholders that were involved in the process! In addition, these projects were located in a heavily urbanized environment making it imperative that the V&M staff worked quickly/efficiently to minimize the effect on the surrounding businesses and vehicular/pedestrian traffic.

4 Project Title: City of Greenville Utility Undergrounding Pilot Project Category I: Special Projects - Subsurface Engineering A) Role of the Entrant The City of Greenville (the City), a former and present client of Vaughn & Melton (V&M), was faced with a dilemma. They needed to find someone to provide the property and topographic survey services and the subsurface utility engineering (S.U.E) services for a Pilot project that had not been attempted before in South Carolina, or the City, through Duke Energy s pilot undergrounding program. V&M, serving as the prime consultant, provided surveying, SUE, utility coordination and construction plans and specifications services. The result was that within 7 months all utilities were properly located and surveyed with little to no disruption in daily vehicular travel and local businesses. The plans, profiles and specifications for the proposed 12-way duct bank were prepared with accompanying easement plats along the corridor. B. Role of other Consultants There were no sub-consultants on this project. V&M provided all services. C. Entrant s Contribution to The Project Original or Innovative Application of New and Existing Techniques Natural disasters such as ice storms and wind storms wreak havoc on overhead power lines, especially in South Carolina due to heavy vegetation cover. In 2005 the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff Electric Department completed a yearly review for Duke Energy in regards to their Ice Storm Recovery. Throughout this review they recommended that Duke should actively seek creative partnerships with municipalities and other entities to establish a financial support network for undergrounding projects to minimize the economic impact to customers and ratepayers. This eventually led to pilot undergrounding program conversations with 3 Cities in North Carolina and 1 City in South Carolina, which was the City of Greenville. The City of Greenville and Duke Energy formed a partnership in order to launch this pilot undergrounding program and V&M was chosen as their consultant to provide the required services for this untested effort. V&M worked diligently to coordinate utility locations with seven different utility providers. This was an incredibly difficult task due to the fact that many utility location maps were outdated or had not been created at all. This is where the cost saving measure of Subsurface Utility Engineering (S.U.E) became invaluable! After reviewing all available utility coordination data, V&M s staff began the process of locating linear feet

5 Project Title: City of Greenville Utility Undergrounding Pilot Project 2 Category I: Special Projects - Subsurface Engineering of utilities with conventional utility locators Ground Penetrating Radar (G.P.R) and nondestructive vacuum excavation. The entire process which included; utility coordination, boundary and topographic surveying, subsurface utility engineering (Levels A&B), base plan preparation, proposed alignment alternatives analysis, plan and profile generation, traffic control plans, construction drawings, construction specifications and easement plats was completed in 7 months. In addition, V&M s actual on-site work only took three months because it was their priority to reduce any negative impact on local businesses and vehicular/pedestrian traffic in these areas. Once the proposed alignment alternatives were established, V&M utilized the vaccum excavator to determine depths of hidden underground vaults and business sign foundation depths. This investigation assisted in determining the final route and depth of the duct bank. Future Value to the Engineering Profession The purpose of this project was to reduce the chance of power outages due to downed overhead power lines that occur after many ice and wind storms. As a successful pilot project, and being the first of its kind in South Carolina, this project will initiate invaluable opportunities to utility owners, municipalities and engineers to partner for future undergrounding projects with the main goal being to provide uninterrupted power to critical areas. A decrease in the amount and length of power outages will in turn improve the health, safety, and wellness of the local population which is the most important obligation of the engineering profession. With these undergrounded utilities, the City of Greenville and Duke Energy can be more confident in their ability to provide power outage services as there will be less customers to service then previously. Social Economic & Sustainable Design Considerations Numerous studies have been completed showing underground lines can dramatically reduce power outages. This was the reason that both the City of Greenville and Duke Energy came together for this pilot undergrounding program. The undergrounding of utilities will especially improve Duke s ability to respond to severe storm outages by reducing the time required to repair overhead services which have been torn down by fallen trees, tree limbs, ice and other weather events. This in turn will ensure that the local public will suffer less outages and for shorter lengths of time. Complexity As previously mentioned, the critical parameters involved here was coordination with seven utility providers and little disruption to local businesses and vehicular/pedestrian travel. All of V&M s field work was performed with little or no disruption. The traffic control plans provided by V&M for the construction of this project provided for lane closures at night with time restraints that prohibited day-time lane closures. V&M s

6 Project Title: City of Greenville Utility Undergrounding Pilot Project 3 Category I: Special Projects - Subsurface Engineering careful planning during utility coordination and SUE location and the contractor s adherence to the schedule and traffic control plans during construction helped make this a successful project. Exceeding Client/Owner Needs Vaughn & Melton took great measures in keeping the client involved in every aspect, also recognizing that communication is critical for the success of a project. V&M s project manager Jerry Carter, PE, PLS and lead S.U.E engineer for the project, Reece Schuler, PE, LSI, led the project team through the utility coordination, boundary and topographical surveys, subsurface utility engineering, and XXX all the while keeping an open ear to the desires and concerns of the City of Greenville and Duke Energy. During the S.U.E./survey phase, V&M project managers were meeting with the City Engineer s staff as well as the utilities representatives to determine which, if not all, utilities would be undergrounded or affected by the undergrounding project. During the first few months of the project, monthly progress meetings were held with these stakeholders. Once the S.U.E., surveys and base plans were completed, the V&M team met with Duke monthly to finalize the proposed alignment, construction drawings and detail specifications. It was quoted by a staff member at the City of Greenville that their office had not previously received utility work of this caliber from any previous consultant. In regards to schedule, all phases were handled in an efficient manner, to the voiced satisfaction of the client. The ultimate goal of a fall 2012 completion was realized. The project costs (actual $1.2 million) were 10% lower than the initial estimate cost (budgeted $1.3 million). Overall, the project was deemed by any measure to be an utter success. D. Special Recognition Natural disasters such as ice storms and wind storms wreak havoc on overhead power lines, especially in South Carolina due to heavy vegetation cover. In 2005 the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff Electric Department completed a yearly review for Duke Energy in regards to their Ice Storm Recovery. Throughout this review they recommended that Duke should actively seek creative partnerships with municipalities and other entities to establish a financial support network for undergrounding projects to minimize the economic impact to customers and ratepayers. This eventually led to pilot undergrounding program conversations with 3 Cities in North Carolina and 1 City in South Carolina, which was the City of Greenville. The City of Greenville and Duke Energy formed a partnership in order to launch this pilot undergrounding program. The City of Greenville selected Vaughn & Melton Consulting Engineers (V&M) to provide surveying, subsurface utility engineering (S.U.E.), utility coordination and construction plans and specifications services for a pilot project to underground (bury) all the overhead utilities in a 12-way duct bank to be operated by Duke Energy. The two corridors chosen for these projects were 6,200 linear feet of Haywood Road and 5,700 linear feet of Augusta Street. Ultimately, a half mile section of Haywood Road was

7 Project Title: City of Greenville Utility Undergrounding Pilot Project 4 Category I: Special Projects - Subsurface Engineering constructed from I-385 to south of Wood Crossing Road. This section involved undergrounding a major single-pole electric transmission line with electric distribution and multiple telecom utilities attached as well. Since this project was the first of its kind in South Carolina for Duke Energy, it presented unique challenges, problems and issues to Duke, the City of Greenville, other affected utilities and stakeholders. The City on the behalf of all of these entities, selected V&M as the foremost qualified firm to coordinate the resolution of any project challenges. V&M strategized and compiled a plan to successfully and seamlessly complete utility coordination with numerous entities at once including; Duke Energy, AT&T, Charter Communications, SCDOT, Piedmont Natural Gas and the City of Greenville. V&M s staff was also tasked with minimizing impacts to existing underground utilities while ensuring that overhead utilities could be buried without interruption of service to customers. In order to minimize the impacts to existing infrastructure, V&M obtained depths of the existing utilities, storm drains and commercial sign foundations by using a combination of conventional surveying, ground penetrating radar and non-destructive vacuum excavation. With this accurate location and elevation of the existing infrastructure, we were able to establish the proposed profiles of the duct bank and six directional bores in such a manner that no major utility cables or mains, or any other major infrastructure, would be impacted by the construction. In spite of these logistic issues, V&M was able to complete this project in seven months which was an incredible feat considering the various agencies, utilities and stakeholders that were involved! In addition, these projects were located in a heavily urbanized environment making it imperative that the V&M staff worked quickly/efficiently to minimize the effect on the surrounding businesses and vehicular/pedestrian traffic.

8 Key Participants City of Greenville Pilot Undergrounding Program Vaughn & Melton Consulting Engineers, Inc. 243 East Blackstock Road Spartanburg, SC (864) Jerry Carter, PE (Principal-in-Charge) Reece Schuler, PE, LSI (S.U.E. Manager) Randy Stepp, PLS (Lead Project Surveyor) City of Greenville Nancy Sue Utility Program Manager City of Greenville PO Box 2207 Greenville SC (864) (fax)

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