Our Lady of the Snows Shrine

Opening Doors Where None Existed

On the grounds of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Illinois, is the Apartment Community for Retirement Living. More than 500 people live at the complex, which offers independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing care plus the services, amenities and opportunities of a small town.

As more residents moved in and its 1960’s technology deteriorated and became obsolete, the community needed greater electrical functionality to meet demand. After a year of consulting with facility managers, Wissehr modified the community’s medium-voltage power distribution system and added capacity.

However, ensuring uninterrupted power during the process was a huge challenge for Wissehr. Many residents depended on heart monitors, ventilators and oxygen equipment. But, by employing detailed plans, circuitry, generators, back-feeding and a lot of communication among Wissehr, the facility administrator and health care professionals, electricians made sure every activity had an overlap in service instead of a gap.

Thinking Creatively

In one situation, Wissehr’s task was to run a high- voltage feeder to a new assisted-living facility, but the existing architecture couldn’t accommodate it. Instead of routing the feeder through the building and disrupting residents, employees, visitors and vendors, Wissehr bored directly under the facility and came up to the desired location.

Now, residents can live their lives to the fullest capacity. Wissehr provided the power.

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