May/June 2017 | The Davey Bulletin 21
"It was a challenge," Jenkins said.
"We're talking over 1,000 miles of
work inspecting utility lines throughout
three states."
RETURNING THE FAVOR
During the bidding process, Jenkins
and the rest of Davey's Southern
Utility crews received more work. And
a series of thunderstorms slammed
the East Coast, leaving the Richmond
R/C crews with dozens of calls for
storm clean-up work.
Once again, Jenkins and Bennett had
to think creatively to figure out how
both crews could get the Colonial
Pipeline project started for Utility
services while tackling storm clean-up
for the Richmond office clients.
"It turns out, the storm clean-up
work that needed to be done by the
Richmond R/C office was a lot of
bucket work, removing hangers from
city trees," Bour said. "That work could
easily be handled by the utility crews."
In the spirit of collaborating, area
manager Steve Clawson sent foreman
Bobby Wright and trimmer Jason
Young from the Newberry Electric
account to Richmond, so Bennett's
R/C crews could remain in the South
and finish their work on the Colonial
Pipeline project.
COLLABORATIVE SUCCESS
For two weeks, Bennett's crews
worked on large tree removals that
needed specific equipment the R/C
office had in its stable.
"Mark Bennett and those guys took
down humongous oak trees standing
over 70 feet tall," Jenkins said. "If that
didn't happen, we probably wouldn't
have gotten the entire job."
The R/C crew
continued to help
utility services for another month.
"The other portion of the job was right
down the road from the backyard tree
removals. We hauled the logs away
because his operation doesn't have a
front-end loader, and the contract with
Colonial required removal of the cut
trees," Bennett said.
Jenkins' 10-member crew cleared the
right-of-way of smaller, easier to manage
removals, while Bennett's R/C crew
members worked to clean up the logs.
After years of seeing silos between
service lines, Jenkins has found a new
way of thinking about Davey. "Don't
forget about our other offices and
divisions to do these bids and come
out with a win," Jenkins said.
With the R/C support, Jenkins' Utility
crew managed to complete all work
per Colonial Pipeline's timeline while
securing the coveted contract until 2020.
"No customer got left behind," Bour said.
While R/C crews helped a Davey utility client,
utiility crews aided residential office clients.
R/C crews spent two weeks helping to clear a pipeline
right-of-way for Utility services client Colonial Pipeline.
