Gainesville Regional Utilities has begun site work on a new $53.7 million, 65-acre operations center at 4747 N Main St.
The five-building center will house office space, a warehouse, a building for safety and training and a building to contain GRU’s system control center that contains the power grid.
The new center will enable GRU to more efficiently serve its customers, said GRU project manager Reid Rivers.
“We have difficulties with transportation now,” he said. “But with our new site, we will have better access to highways.”
GRU sends about 250 trucks out every day to do work all over town, he said, and the new location is more centrally located.
The land GRU will leave behind, especially in the downtown area on Southeast Fourth Avenue, can be further developed when GRU leaves, he said.
GRU’s administration building and power plant will remain downtown, he said, but everything else will move to the new center.
GRU plans to move into the complex by Oct. 1, 2011.
The American Public Power Association gave GRU an E.F. Scattergood System Achievement Award, which goes to power companies that exhibit outstanding customer service.
