Delivering Safe, Reliable Service Through World Class Training
Safe and reliable energy is the lifeblood of any community. It allows us to heat our homes and cook dinner for our families. It can be easy to take for granted, but there are countless individuals who dedicate their careers to making sure our heat and stoves stay on, including the men and women of New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG).
NJNG serves more than half a million customers in Monmouth, Ocean, Morris, Middlesex and Burlington counties. Through its consistent infrastructure investments, today it operates the most environmentally-sound natural gas distribution system in the state, as measured by leaks per mile. The company is also committed to ensuring their team of talented and highly-skilled employees have access to industry-best training.
In 2017, NJNG recognized the need for an improved, state-of-the-art facility that would serve as both a training center for its employees as well as a symbol for their dedication to safety. NJNG’s Manager of Operator Qualifications Joe Morello and Project Manager Brian Fitzpatrick were tasked with developing the concept of what a new facility would actually look like. “We went around the country and looked at what other companies were doing,” explained Mr. Morello. “We improved upon some ideas we saw, and we came up with some of our own, so it’s an amalgamation of a lot of different sources and ideas.”
The completed campus, located in Howell, New Jersey, includes a two-story, 30,000 square foot training center, with classrooms, a 75-seat lecture hall and administrative offices, as well as a mock-up town nicknamed “Safety Town,” complete with small scale houses and streets. “The town in the back is intended to marry up and match the working environment that our workers experience in the field on a day-to-day basis,” said Mr. Fitzpatrick. NJNG paid special attention to the details when designing the mock town, ensuring that NJNG’s employees were exposed to all experiences and eventualities. “What we did is each of those sheds are bit unique in that, one might be on a slab, one might have a cellar, one might have a crawl space…we have fake drainpipes and catch basins.” The mock town also features live gas mains and electrical services in order to ensure the most realistic scenarios possible.
“The gist is that if we can expose our trainees to actual situations in real life, we will have helped prepare them for the challenges they may experience in daily life on the job,” explained Mr. Morello.
Unique Challenges
Constructing a state-of-the-art training facility for a leading natural gas company is no small feat and requires careful planning. Even with the best laid plans, challenges can arise.
Once a location was chosen, the process of permitting and engineering had to take place to ensure the site could handle the desired development. “Besides the typical environmental permitting hurdles that we typically encounter, this site provided a unique challenge to us,” explained Brian R. Decina, PE, CME, EVP and Manager of Site Engineering at FPA, who served as Project Manager. As part of FPA’s due diligence services, the firm reviewed NJ-GeoWeb, which allows users to access NJDEP GIS data, and it was determined that the property was located within a sanitary sewer service area. Normally this would mean that the property is to be served by public sanitary sewer services, but after closer examination it was clear that there was an issue. “In reviewing the MUA’s plans and performing field reconnaissance, the closest sanitary sewer main was located well over a mile away from the project site and would require significant improvements to extend the sewer main to the property,” said Mr. Decina. FPA then presented NJNG with two options: extend the sanitary sewer main to the site or design an onsite subsurface sewage disposal system. The former would incur significant costs and lengthy delays, but the latter would require the project to receive approval for the deviation.
Ultimately, the decision was made to go with the onsite subsurface sewage disposal system. FPA worked with the Monmouth County Health Department during the initial design of the system and then advanced an application to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) for a Treatment Works Approval to confirm the anticipated design flow due to the uniqueness of the facility use classification as it relates to NJAC 7:9A. “The NJDEP met with the project team, reviewed and agreed with our findings and ultimately approved us to finalize the design at the local level with the county,” said Mr. Decina. “We designed a pressure dosing subsurface sewage disposal system that has been installed and is currently active for the training center.”
Four-Season Interest Landscape
During the design phase, it was decided that the training center would have a four-season interest landscape as it would not require a tremendous amount of maintenance. Designing a landscape that can survive all year in New Jersey, however, is easier said than done. “In order to achieve this goal, we used primarily native material with mature sizes appropriate for their proposed spaces,” explained Sarah Rebar Bisaha, LLA, PP, who served as the project’s Landscape Architect. “Emphasis was also placed on picking species that could handle dry spells and were deer resistant since that is big concern lately.” Ms. Bisaha also designed the lighting at the training center in conjunction with Liberty Lighting.
Looking to the Future
With one of the newest training facilities in the state, NJNG is able to offer the very best education experience for its employees, but they aren’t stopping there. The company plans on making the training center available to local fire and police departments. “We already have a good rapport with most of the fire companies in our service territory – we already train with them – but now we’re going to train with them even more so, in more realistic scenarios,” said Mr. Morello.
Looking to the future, the new NJNG Training Center holds immense potential , and with its doors just opening, things are only getting started. “We’ve left space for expansion, we want to start expanding, but you know actually we have to start walking before we run,” admits Mr. Morello. “We designed a facility that we can grow into, and with a lot of different touches and a lot of different specialty items, I think we have a lot to offer.”
FPA would like to thank its staff, NJNG and the entire project team for their hard work and dedication to making this project a reality.
