Project at a Glance

• Location: Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
• Client: Tennessee Board of Regents
• Facility Type: University Campus
• Project Focus: Multiple Building Electrical Upgrades

About the Project

Stansell modernized TSU’s campus electrical backbone by replacing legacy switchgear with new Square D switchgear. The team installed new conduit pathways and replaced aging feeders to improve reliability across multiple campus buildings. Work was sequenced around planned outage windows and coordinated with campus stakeholders.

Key Features:

• New Square D switchgear replacing gear with an average age of 58 years
• New conduit pathways and feeder replacements for cleaner distribution
• Five campus buildings included in Phase 1
• 4,500 project hours without an injury
• Material support from Border States and equipment provided by Schneider Electric

Challenges and Growth:

Working in an active campus environment with interconnected electrical distribution created unique constraints around access, outage coordination, and safety.

Challenges Include:

• Confined electrical rooms with limited door and corridor clearances for removal and placement
• Shared distribution that tied multiple buildings together, which meant any outage affected more than one facility
• Tight outage windows that had to respect the academic calendar, events, and building schedules
• Aging documentation and as builts that required thorough field verification of feeders and terminations
• Rigging constraints, including floor loading limits, stair thresholds, and tight turns on the path of travel
• Maintaining life safety systems and temporary power plans during cutovers
• Deliveries and material handling on an active campus with restricted hours and limited staging space

Our Approach:

We front loaded planning with TSU Facilities and the Tennessee Board of Regents, mapping critical loads, confirming outage windows, and aligning work with campus operations. Each cutover carried an hour-by-hour plan with clear handoffs, contingencies, and approvals. Before outages the team verified existing conditions, labeled equipment and feeders, and prepared temporary power to protect essential services.

For the physical changeout we partnered with Sentry Steel to engineer the lift plan and path of travel, measured every pinch point, protected floors and corners, and executed trial moves to confirm clearances. We prefabricated where practical, bench tested components, and staged hardware to accelerate installation once windows opened. Safety governed every step through lockout tagout, barricades and spotters, and pre- task briefings. Communication stayed tight with advance notices to campus stakeholders, a single point of contact during work windows, real time updates at milestones, and post energization torque checks, thermal scans, and documentation.

Community Impact:

Careful planning and coordination reduced campus disruption and supported a more dependable learning environment. The upgrades lowered the risk of unplanned outages, improved maintainability for campus operations, and aligned with TSU’s broader infrastructure improvements. Stansell’s Transportation and Infrastructure team advanced South Loop work in parallel, which helped sequencing and communication.

Outcome:

The project delivered a safer and more reliable system across five buildings with power restored as planned after each shutdown window. The team recorded 4,500 injury free hours and completed precise removals and placements in constrained spaces. TSU now has a modernized electrical backbone that supports daily campus needs and future upgrades.