by: Joe Green, Director, Customer Service, Conservation, Generation & Substations
On August 25th the new Customer Service Lobby opened the doors for business in the former power plant building. For the last two years a transformation has been underway to convert the power plant into new office space, a larger Customer Service area, Meter Shop and elevated Vehicle Storage Building. Although the first phase of the transformation is coming to an end, there is still some construction taking place. If you’re visiting customer service or conducting other business at OPU, please excuse our mess while the construction continues and our employees move into their new work areas.
In early September, Phase II of the repurposing project will kick-off with the demolition of the 1960 Customer Service and Main Office building. Once completed, the entire area will be filled in and resurfaced to provide additional parking and improved building access. For the time being, we’re asking customers to please use the east entrance ramp along Walnut Avenue. Once Phase II is completed, there will be an indoor ramp entrance from the new parking lot. The new office allows us to provide better customer service for you as well as improved working conditions for employees. We expect to be completed by year end.
I’m sure some of you might be asking “What brought OPU to undertake such a large project?” The answer is the flooding we experienced back in September 2010. The flooding caused extensive damage to power plant equipment and several other buildings. With our operations built in a flood zone, next to the Straight River, we are always prone to flooding so a lot of time and effort was spent considering many alternatives. One option briefly considered, included moving our operations to a completely new location at the edge of town but with support from the community and federal funding from FEMA, the decision was made to remain at our historic location. The final plans would include the now idle power plant and incorporate a design to safeguard us from future flooding.
Demolition inside the power plant began in late 2012 and went well into 2013 to remove six old steam boilers, turbines, equipment and tons of steel throughout the building. The oldest boilers were built in the late 1920’s and building additions thereafter housed even larger boilers. If you look at the outside of the building you can see the slight change in brick that marked the new boilers and additions.
From the beginning, everyone involved in the project was in agreement to retain the openness of the iconic Power Plant. For example, throughout the building extra efforts were made to design and utilize the large windows to allow natural light to penetrate the interior. It was also important to capture the history of electric generation over the last 80 years. Original steel beams that once secured the boilers and the large stacks were left in place to support the new second and third floor office areas. Colors were selected from equipment and flooring that dated back to the late 1920’s. Throughout the building artifacts were recovered and salvaged from demolition to be displayed. The items are unique and include boiler doors, valve wheels, hand tools, gauges and old equipment used to help electrify the city. These reminders will be displayed to tell the story of our past and assure our growth as a utility into the future. We look forward to seeing you at our open house in the spring.
