After a recent trade show in Las vegas, some colleagues and I took a road trip to Hoover Dam. According to the Arizona Power Authority, the dam can produce more than “2,000 megawatts of capacity and a yearly average generation of 4.5 billion kilowatt hours to serve the annual electrical needs of nearly 8 million people in Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada.” That is a lot of electricity coming from one impressive structure, built during the Depression by more than 5,000 workers. And did you know that 112 people died constructing this edifice?
Because May is National Electrical Safety Month, we bring you a plethora of useful and interesting articles to help keep you out of harm’s way.
Claire Swedberg leads off with “Watching out for You,” which is about using digital solutions to prevent collisions. Collision avoidance is becoming big business. William Atkinson asks “Who’s at Fault?” when it comes to workplace accidents and discusses the importance of creating a safety culture at work. Our arc flash safety expert Jim Phillips touches on the topic of electrical safety training, too, in “What Could Go Wrong?”
In “Fire Fighters,” Chuck Ross informs us that AFCI manufacturers are working to ensure the devices keep up with changing loads to prevent nuisance tripping. The devices and the safety they provide are here to stay.
Breaking away from safety, Susan Casey brings us a beautiful project from upstate New York: Lakeview Amphitheater on Onondaga Lake. She addresses the electrical and architectural challenges the electrical contractor faced on the job. Read “Showtime by the Lake.” In our final feature, “Finding Success Through Succession,” Jeff Gavin has gathered some expert advice on the tricky but important subject of succession planning.
Also of import, Safety columnist Tom O’Connor writes about OSHA’s new rule on respirable silica dust. In Technology, Jim Romeo writes about remote-monitoring technology, while Jim Phillips provides the third part of his step-by-step method of performing arc flash hazard calculations. Cool Tools writer Jeff Griffin addresses ladders and ladder safety. The featured products this month are, of course, Safety Equipment and Apparel.
If you’re in Las Vegas, I highly recommend making a short detour through the rocky red desert to see Hoover Dam. It’s a modern engineering marvel. But if you’re afraid of heights, don’t look down.
About The Author
Julie Mazur
Managing Editor, Electrical Contractor magazineJulie Mazur is the managing editor of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR, Safety Leader and Line Contractor magazines. Before coming to ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR, she was an editor at Knight-Ridder/Tribune newspapers and the Los Angeles Times and taught English as a foreign language in Egypt and Japan. As managing editor, Julie oversees the whole publishing arc. She plans and assigns the stories for every issue, works with writers and designers and interacts with the printing plant. She has a mass communications B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. Go Bears!
Permanently retired from ziplining, Julie is an enthusiastic sports spectator and radio listener. She likes to read, exercise and cook.
JOHNSON is a writer and editor living outside Washington, D.C. He has worked in magazine, web and journal publishing since 2006, and was formerly the digital editor for ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR magazine. Learn more at www.tjfreelance.com.
