If you live in Gardendale, it’s hard not to notice the massive infrastructure improvements Alabama Power is making in the area.

The company is adding an additional breaker to the Morris Substation and that requires 14 separate distribution jobs company line crews have to complete by Sept. 12.

Led by the 12-man Gardendale Crew and with able assistance from the 12th Street Crew and Birmingham’s Roving Crew, these jobs required setting 150 poles and restringing 250 spans of wire in addition to installing automated equipment.

Gardendale Crew Foreman Robert Hollis said tackling one of the biggest Alabama Power projects Gardendale has seen in quite a while requires teamwork.

“We set poles and restring lines all the time, but this is a much larger scale project than normal,” Hollis said. “It’s great to have other crews that can step up and work with us as a team to help us meet our deadline and better serve our customers.”

Rusty Barton is foreman of the 12th Street Crew and Eric Sutton is foreman of the Birmingham Roving Crew.

Construction work started the beginning of July and eight of the 14 jobs are complete. The crews are on track to meet the Sept. 12 deadline.

For the crew members, improving Alabama Power’s reliability in Gardendale is not just good for the company, it’s good for their own families and neighbors since most of the crew members live in the Gardendale area.

“We try to treat each project as if it was for our own homes,” Hollis said. “In this case, it really is true.”

— Mike Tomberlin