Episode 206 – Powering Baltimore: Inside the Key Crossing Reliability Initiative

The podcast by project managers for project managers. The Key Crossing Reliability Initiative by Baltimore Gas and Electric (BG&E) is a critical project replacing aging transmission lines across the Patapsco River, spanning 2.25 miles. Managed by Cody Duplisea, PMP, it powers over a million homes and businesses in Baltimore. Completed before the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, it gained high visibility for ensuring reliable power transmission. Table of Contents 03:03 … Meet Cody04:53 … Key Crossing Reliability Initiative Project06:31 … A High Visibility Project07:43 … Project Timeline08:23 … Cody’s PM Role09:11 … The “Above Water” Decision-Making Process13:30 … Width of the River15:00 … Tower Height16:16 … Stakeholder Outreach17:13 … Project Challenges19:45 … Decommissioning Old Cables21:03 … Kevin and Kyle21:47 … Handling Stressful Moments23:02 … Ensuring Good Communication25:58 … Balancing Onsite and In Office28:15 … Navigating the Unexpected31:13 … Extra Risk Mitigation Strategies32:29 … Project Takeaways33:57 … Lessons Learned36:27 … Find Out More37:22 … Closing WENDY GROUNDS: Hey folks, the bridge we’re talking about in this episode is the Francis Scott Key Bridge, over the Patapsco River in Baltimore. As many of you know the bridge collapsed around 1:30 a.m. March 26th this year after a massive cargo ship, called the Dali, lost power, veered off course and struck the bridge. Six construction workers died in this accident. This episode we recorded before the tragedy took place and before the bridge collapsed. We opted against editing our conversation and chose to leave it in its original state. So, we do talk about the bridge quite a bit in this podcast. WENDY GROUNDS:  You’re listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  My name is Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates. We hope to bring you some support as you navigate your projects.  We like to also delve into the latest developments that are shaping our world today.  And we’re thrilled to highlight a remarkable project on this episode.  This is called the Key Crossing Reliability Initiative, and it has been named a PMI Project of the Year Award Finalist for 2023. BILL YATES:  Yeah, this is such an honor to be able to speak with Cody directly about this project.  He was involved in it and led it.  Just to step back for a minute, this is a project that Baltimore Gas and Electric, BG&E, initiated.  They were replacing transmission line. So, as you guys know, I spent the first half of my career working in the utility space.  Utilities have a generation component, transmission, and distribution.  Transmission, these are the tall towers that we see when we’re driving down the road.  Those are high voltage.  They cover long distances.  And then distribution is that last piece that gets the electricity to our homes or to our business.  So, these transmission lines that we’re going to talk about are, again, they’re high voltage.  And in this case, they’re spanning across a river.  And we’re going to talk about eight transmission poles that are put in place to span like a 2.5-mile space.  Five of those are in the water, and eight total to get transmission, to get electricity from one side of the river to the next where you have a million customers who need electricity. WENDY GROUNDS: Our guest is Cody Duplisea, and he works for Burns & McDonnell as a project manager working on Baltimore Gas and Electric’s Key Crossing Reliability Initiative.  Cody’s career started in Northwestern Pennsylvania as a pipeline project engineer with National Fuel, and he has since become an integral part of the Burns & McDonnell PMOC for BGE going on nine years.  Since joining Burns & McDonnell in 2015, Cody has worked in the development of BGE’s Project Controls Organization for the STRIDE Gas Main Replacement Program, as well as managed multiple facilities’ enhancement projects.