Nicole Sparks, Irby Office Manager, noticed something strange upon her arrival at the Claremore, Oklahoma office early one morning.

As she was backing into her parking spot, she saw what appeared to be a small fire under a van parked across the street. No one accompanied the vehicle or was in the area at the time. She secured her belongings and went toward the van to verify what exactly she  was seeing. Once she realized that there was some sort of electrical fire happening under the engine and near the front passenger side tire, she quickly retrieved a fire extinguisher and was able to put out the fire without further damage to the vehicle.

The Quanta Commitment Coin is only given to those employees who go above and beyond while on the job. Quanta and Irby are honored to present this award to Nicole, and we thank her for her swift action in what could have been a very hazardous situation.

Luke Naron, Irby Regional Safety Manager, presenting Nicole Sparks with the Quanta Commitment Coin.

Irby knew from the get-go that Job 2839 was going to require special planning and effective teamwork. The work order required work to be performed that didn’t meet the adjacent transmission line clearance. The substation optimization project in Port Richey, Florida was complex, to say the least. A scheduled outage would be required, therefore making an on-time delivery even more critical.

Team Irby is no stranger to the complexities, organization, and management of this line of work. So, we set out with a plan, called all hands on deck, and executed accordingly. Assistant Superintendent, Ricky Hobby, and two overhead General Foremen, Michael Adams and Jeremy Sanderson, developed a plan that involved 12 overhead crews. Fifty-eight poles needed to be set in less than 48 hours.

Due to congestion in the area, all 58 holes had to be dug by hand. To expedite the timeline, six crews worked during the day laying out the poles and digging holes, and six other crews worked through the night setting the poles during a 10 p.m. transmission scheduled outage. An Irby transmission crew was onsite with the distribution team both nights actively testing and grounding the transmission line.

The team faced two big challenges in addition to the already tight timeline and handwork required. First, the rainy weather was not in our favor. Second, locates were missed or wrongly marked in many cases. This held up our production and halted our original plans for a short period. Thankfully, Ricky Hobby was able to work quickly to track down the various locate companies to get all necessary locations marked correctly.

While work was held up, crews shifted in real-time to assist others. The team kept busy, loading and hauling poles and were able to mobilize to complete their original work plan as soon as the locates were complete.

Our resilient crews went above and beyond to ensure everything was ready for the next shift coming in. They worked long hours and remained on site the entire course of production. The project was successful, and we were able to get all 58 poles set for a total distance of 1.62 miles. Power was restored as planned, and the project was completed on time within the 48-hour window.

On May 8 at a ceremony in New Orleans, Irby was honored by Entergy with a Premier Vendor Award in the area of Innovation and Continuous Improvement for significantly improving processes in the area of safety excellence with its Lineman Calculator.

The Lineman Calculator is an iOS application that takes the most commonly used equations by linemen and simplifies the inputs required thereby increasing reliability and reducing the chance for errors.

“It is no secret that linework calculations can be tricky, and when performed manually, like they have been for many years, a seemingly minor mistake can have serious ramifications,” said Jason Stewart, Irby’s VP of Safety. “With the app, our linemen can quickly and confidently fill in equation data points for the most complex calculations, all while continuing to work safely and efficiently.”

According to Entergy, the Premier Vendor Program recognizes and promotes extraordinary vendor performance. In seeking and sharing best practices, award winners have a profound and direct impact on improving the safety and reliability of the utility industry.

“We are honored to have been chosen and recognized once again by Entergy as a premier vendor,” said Jason Clayton, President of Irby. “Entergy has been an Irby customer for more than 30 years. Being aligned with our customer’s business objectives, bringing continued value, meeting expectations, and providing services safely are imperative. This award is testament of that. I am extremely proud of our technology, safety, and operations teams for creating the calculator app, and for their commitment to safety and continuous drive for improvement.”

Click HERE to watch a video that highlights the Lineman Calculator and Entergy Premier Vendor Award.

Irby is pleased to announce Brad Davis’ recent promotion to Vice President of Operations!

Brad joined Irby’s Equipment Department in 2000. He left to finish college and returned to Irby in the Bidding Department as a Scheduler/Estimator. In 2011, he was promoted to Operations Manager. In 2017, Brad was promoted to Project Manager & Managing Director of Bidding. His next promotion took him to Senior Project Manager in 2020, and then to Operations Director in 2022.

Please join me in congratulating Brad Davis on his promotion to Vice President of Operations for Irby, effective immediately,” said Irby President Jason Clayton. “I am confident that Brad will continue to represent Irby with the utmost professionalism and will assist our continuing journey to be the best in the industry.”