BELLEVILLE - From the outside, the JP Morgan Chase Technology Center looks like your run-of-the-mill office building addition - albeit without windows.

Inside, it's a different story.

Walsh Construction is managing the construction of a 68,000 square-foot addition on the south side of their existing building at Haggerty and Tyler Roads. The project is filled with all manner of electrical and technology-related gear - to the extent that it brings a sense of astonishment to even the most veteran electrician.

"I've never seen anything like this in my years in the business," said IBEW Local 58 steward Bob "Flash" Blackmore, working for Centerline Electric. "It's a very interesting job. This is the first time, and probably the last time, I'll ever see all this kind of gear, all this color-coordinated wire, and everything else in this building. Everything is very neatly done. It's a very nice job."

JP Morgan Chase processes banking information at the Belleville facility - and the addition will expand its capacity to do so.

The expansion project began last December, and one year later, the building is in place and many of the data operations are already being tested. The entire project is expected to be completed in March.

All of the building trades were in on the construction of the technology center addition, but the space is essentially a shell devoted to electronics, and the electrical contract, led by Centerline Electric, is more than 40 percent of the $100 million-plus budget. Conti Electric, Huron Valley Electric and Lake Erie Electric have also contributed to the project.

John Gelardi, Centerline Electric's project manager, said the project began with the placement of underground conduit in January. He said the frozen earth had to be heated underneath the still-to-be-constructed building - adding he's "still amazed" at how quickly the center was built.

When it comes to the electrical and data systems, "we have a little bit of everything in here," Gelardi said. "So much of the project was planning, with all the CAD layout work. It was very complex, you had to know where everything was going to be installed and plan for it."

And from one end to the other, the electrical work is all about redundancy. The system starts with a new Detroit Edison substation on the grounds of the JP Morgan Chase site. Twin electrical 13.2 kilovolt feeds power the facility. If utility power is interrupted, the facility's power system seamlessly switches to a massive battery backup operation, which can power the operations in the building for about 10 minutes.

But it should only take seconds for six diesel-powered generators to kick on, providing substitute power for the facility until utility power can be restored.

The battery operations alone are a thing to behold. The system includes a total of 2,400 lead-calcium batteries, wired together, and placed on racks in five separate rooms. Each battery weighs 350 lbs. apiece, for a total of more than 840,000 pounds of batteries.

A monitoring system allows plant managers to identify and replace individual batteries that go bad. For that matter, no less than 300,000 parts of the power system can be monitored. The entire electrical and technology system is also rated to withstand a seismic event or tornado.

Conduit raceways go through walls, ceilings and floors throughout the building, and many are bent like industrial works of art. Inside the conduit are all manner of different wire, power and data, all color-coded. The facility has a number of systems with their own unique labeled acronyms - a PDU is a Power Distribution Unit, and there are electricians who can tell you all about the building's "Synchropower System" its "multifunction generator" and the "diesel generator switch room."

The systems are placed logically in a number of rooms throughout the addition.

According to a report in the local Independent newspaper, the JP Morgan Chase Technology Center is one of only five financial data center sites in the world that are at "Tier 3 Security" - with Tier 4 being found at military installations. The paper said the original building was erected in 1990 and with the expansion, it will encompass 332,000 square feet. This expansion will allow for a net increase of 50 jobs.

The project employed some 145 electricians at peak employment last August, Blackmore said, and about 60 were on site earlier this month. Counting all trades, the project peaked out at about 500 Hardhats.

The biggest challenge, said Paul Pauline, electrical project manager for Walsh Construction, was moving the addition along without affecting the operations - electrical or otherwise - at the rest of the JP Morgan Chase facility.

"The bank got a good job, there's very good workmanship on this project," Pauline said. "With all the challenges out here, people worked very well together. To have this building virtually complete in a year - that's a real source of pride to me."

WORKING ON ONE of the 2,400 batteries in the JP Morgan Chase Technology Center is John Arnast of IBEW Local 58 and Lake Erie Electric. He's in one of five similar rooms that hold batteries, used in case utility power is interrupted at the facility.

HEFTING A LADDER through "Data Center 5" at the JP Morgan Chase Technology Center is Pernell Garrison Jr. of IBEW Local 58 and Centerline Electric.