LAKELAND, Florida — To meet the current and future needs of Lakeland Electric’s more than 132,000 customers, the utility has selected Burns & McDonnell to design and build a new greenfield substation in Lakeland to help power the region. The firm will implement a design-build approach to keep project deliverables on budget and on time.

“We are looking forward to this partnership with Burns & McDonnell and seeing the benefits of the firm’s commitment to the design-build delivery method,” says Korey Bush, assistant general manager at Lakeland Electric. “Through the use of the design-build process, we will be able to complete this project within our anticipated timeline.”

Construction design-build empowers Burns & McDonnell and Lakeland officials to collaborate on everything from planning and design through construction and commissioning, infusing transparency and accountability into the process to help accelerate schedule and generate other efficiencies. Construction is expected to begin this October and be completed in spring 2024. The substation will feature a six-breaker ring bus with three transmission lines, two transformers and two 13-kV bays, as well as a new control house.

“We are proud to help Lakeland achieve its goal of building a new substation through the design-build model to expedite delivery of the project—due to current procurement market conditions—and resource constraints,” says Esteban Martinez, senior construction project manager at Burns & McDonnell. “We know this project will help expand our new partnership with Lakeland and we are confident our integrated team approach will lead to successful project deliverables.”

Lakeland continues to target manufacturing and other high-wage jobs that will lead to a greater quality of life for residents of the area. Along with other projects, the region’s expanded manufacturing presence includes Amazon Air announcing a recent expansion of runway/airplane parking to increase capacity within the company’s existing facility. Such new ventures will be powered by the new substation.

“The focus on the recruitment of manufacturing companies has certainly increased the need for more power but we are also seeing that need to grow for our logistics and distribution companies,” says Katie Worthington Decker, senior vice president of the Lakeland Economic Development Council. “Many of our distribution companies are investing in automation to supplement existing labor. These sophisticated sorting and packing systems create more tracking and efficiencies but do require more power.”

About Burns & McDonnell

Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies bringing together an unmatched team of more than 13,500 engineers, construction and craft professionals, architects, planners, technologists, and scientists to design and build our critical infrastructure. With an integrated construction and design mindset, we offer full-service capabilities. Founded in 1898 and working from more than 70 offices globally, Burns & McDonnell is 100% employee-owned. Learn how we are designed to build.