Supercharger - Greenwich CT - Merritt Parkway

[Pollux]

Hi, @KButler,

Just found this thread myself and wanted to say a belated, "thank you very much!" to you for all the information you supplied. In the absence of hard data, we all tend to speculate and amplify noise over signal. Your details are quite welcome! Thank you so much for taking the time and making the effort to let us know what's going on.

Thanks,
Alan

Hey everyone,

I found this this thread after doing a google search, and thought it was interesting that people were even aware this existed during its infancy. I also thought you all might appreciate some inside information.

I am the superintendent/project manager for the construction company that is redeveloping these service plazas. Let me tell you--construction on the parkway is not easy. Along with the perils of working on a highway that is not friendly to transporting typical construction equipment and trucks, we were also bound by historical requirements, LEED standards, DOT jurisdiction, environmental remediation, and a perpetually changing design. One such wrinkle was the inclusion of the Tesla charging stations, which were included into the project scope about six months into construction, with the design being finalized somewhere around September of 2013. Generally, this would not be a monumental task, except for--granite.

Greenwich is 100% rock, anywhere from 2-5 feet below grade. Along with the difficulty of trenching through rock (for storm drainage, electrical, water, etc.), the NB plaza electrical service also feeds the the SB plaza. The gas station product tanks for both sides are also located on NB. Typically the feeds would be pulled through directional borings, which are trenchless drillings underneath the highway, about 8' below grade. However, the rock caused the price of these operations to skyrocket, and created a myriad of safety issues for travelers on the highway. From May of 2013 to October of 2013, we developed an alternative method, which uses custom spacers to utilize an existing duct under the highway. The custom spacers racked the communications lines, high voltage power, and gas lines in the same duct with explosion proof fittings, and full interior grouting. Long story short, it took a tremendous amount of time to approve and complete this work, and it delayed a lot of exterior site work (paving, concrete, fueling, etc.).

I'll spare you the rest of the minutia, but the charging stations and superchargers are now 100% complete, operate on a dedicated transformer, and will be commissioned on Monday, 1/20/2014. The NB service plaza opened yesterday at noon, so Tesla users should be able to charge later next week on the NB side. The SB service plaza will be opening at the end of January, so hang on a little longer!

Hope that didn't bore everyone too much

- - - Updated - - -

From wikipedia, re Paxson, Alaska:

As of the census[SUP][2][/SUP] of 2000, there were 43 people, 21 households, and 11 families residing in the CDP.... The median income for a household in the CDP was $46,500, and the median income for a family was $46,667.

So that's TEN Model S cars in a village of 21 households?! With median household income around $47K?

Wow!!!

You should mention this to Tesla. There has to be some kind of GREAT video/story that could be made of this situation, for their testimonial page.

What makes the Model S so particularly attractive to your community?

(Apologies if off topic, please feel free to start a new thread, @AudobonB, if you think the topic is worth discussing at length.)

Thanks,
Alan

The only thing boring was your directional driller tunneling under the Merritt.

So: if just Fairfield COUNTY by itself can have SIX SpCs right off the bat, including two perched atop bedrock, I would say us poooor Alaskans ought to be thrown a bone or two. Or SpC or two.....we're now up to one out of every two households in Paxson own a Model S.....


:smile::smile::smile::smile::smile::cursing:

 

[Robert.Boston]

I charged with no problems at the southbound service area this morning. Apparently it's been open since Monday.

This is excellent news, Malcolm; thanks for the report. I'm driving to Baltimore later this month, and I'd far rather drive on the Merritt than I-95. Now I can!

 

[PeterK]

This is excellent news, Malcolm; thanks for the report. I'm driving to Baltimore later this month, and I'd far rather drive on the Merritt than I-95. Now I can!

Great news - I'm now planning to charge there with our three girls early Friday evening, on the way to visit relatives in Westchester and NYC. May hit JFK over the weekend as well, to top off for the return trip.

 

[airj1012]

I charged with no problems at the southbound service area this morning. Apparently it's been open since Monday.

Not all of the stalls were working last week. Which stall did you use?

 

[aaron.s]

All -

Merritt Greenwich CT Southbound Supercharger & Plaza is open.
Stopped by today and tested all 4 stalls - all working!

Darien CT South today - FULL and interesting wrapped Model S!

Bring it on Winter! (My car right now)

Aaron

 

[Mike_Schlechter]

All four on the southbound service center in Greenwich seem to work, but onto the far two on the northbound work. Also, I've noticed a few weird things. First, my car doesn't show the chargers on the Super Charger map, nor do they show up as visited chargers on the map?!?! Also, the rate of charge seems to be about two thirds of the other Super Chargers I've been to.

 

[JohnQ]

Mike--SCs aren't showing up as visited chargers anymore. A shame, really, I liked collecting the badges of where I've been. My trip to TN is a big gap from Darien all the way to Asheville.

 

[EdA]

Mike--SCs aren't showing up as visited chargers anymore. A shame, really, I liked collecting the badges of where I've been. My trip to TN is a big gap from Darien all the way to Asheville.

You should have found a 120V outlet to plug into at each SC

 

[NoMoGas]

Charged successfully at the northbound service area Sunday morning. Far end charger had power but next one over didn't. I assume one of the other two was also powered but didn't check. Wasn't getting high speed but think it was because the battery was cold, with regen limited to 15. The car was outside overnight and I'd only driven 10 miles. Stayed briefly to check out the minimart and food offerings (Dunkin Donuts and Subway) them proceeded to Milford so the battery would be warm from driving. The Merritt is a great road to drive in the Model S. Looking forward to the Taconic sometime.

You are making me homesick. I grew up in Westchester County. Had a good friend in New Britain CT and a GF in Yorktown Heights so I'm very familiar with the Merrit and Taconic Pkwys... Anything on the Bronx River or Sprain brook planned that you know of? Are they going on the Hutch or just starting at the Merrit?

 

[wormhole]

You are making me homesick. I grew up in Westchester County. Had a good friend in New Britain CT and a GF in Yorktown Heights so I'm very familiar with the Merrit and Taconic Pkwys... Anything on the Bronx River or Sprain brook planned that you know of? Are they going on the Hutch or just starting at the Merrit?

nothing planned on either...

 

[EdA]

Really ICEd at Greenwich SB yesterday,

 

[juliusa]

Yes, looks like one stall may be iced until spring. But that leaves 3 more than we had a week ago...

 

[PeterK]

I charged at the SB area for 15 min Friday evening and again for 15 min yesterday during the snowstorm, after spending the afternoon in Greenwich. My relatives in Westchester only have 120v in the garage so I needed to add some range quickly. All three remaining stalls were open Friday but there was a Prius ICEing a second one yesterday.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Alright! I picked up my P85+ this afternoon and it had about 200 miles of charge. I drove around quite a bit (as a newbie, of course) not really paying attention to power usage.. .I ended up at the NB side of this Greenwich SC about 54 miles later, using up about 85 miles of rated charge.

I plugged in to plug #2A, and it could not get a connection (solid red) -- the error was the plug wasn't inserted enough.. so I tried about three times, and each time the handle inserted as far as it would go, it would latch, turn blue, then red.

So I moved over two spots, and it worked straight away. I charged for 30 minutes and got charged up to about 211 miles of range. I was getting 175 amps, 376 volts, and it was charging at 202 mph. Pretty awesome! So I sat for 30 minutes and played with the console and settings.

Got to my g/f's garage with 198 miles of charge left, plugged into 120V/12A line, and now it's charging at 4mph for the night (and next several days, due to bad weather).

 

[MassX1317]

Congrats on the new car! I fear looking like a newbie at public chargers.

 

[PeterK]

Alright! I picked up my P85+ this afternoon and it had about 200 miles of charge. I drove around quite a bit (as a newbie, of course) not really paying attention to power usage.. .I ended up at the NB side of this Greenwich SC about 54 miles later, using up about 85 miles of rated charge.

I plugged in to plug #2C, and it could not get a connection (solid red) -- the error was the plug wasn't inserted enough.. so I tried about three times, and each time the handle inserted as far as it would go, it would latch, turn blue, then red.

So I moved over two spots, and it worked straight away. I charged for 30 minutes and got charged up to about 211 miles of range. I was getting 175 amps, 376 volts, and it was charging at 202 mph. Pretty awesome! So I sat for 30 minutes and played with the console and settings.

Got to my g/f's garage with 198 miles of charge left, plugged into 120V/12A line, and now it's charging at 4mph for the night (and next several days, due to bad weather).

Congrats from me as well - enjoy!

I was there a little after noon today, and had the same issues with the nearer two chargers (I think they're 2A and 2B), then charged successfully on 1B. But when I first plugged into 1B I got a red due to a poor connection. With these thick cables and extended cold that further limits their flexibility, you need to park close enough but not too close I guess. However I had trouble on 2A or 2B previously, and like today successfully charged on 1B, so it could be that the #2 charger isn't fully operational. Unfortunate, because 1A is snowed under, leaving only one available charger. I was going to call Tesla but then realized that these SCs aren't yet officially open - perhaps this is a reason - so I wasn't comfortable asking them to fix something not yet released.

 

[HankLloydRight]

You're right -- it was the 2A charger. Just a typo in my previous post (fixed).

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Also, I just couldn't help but to chuckle at all the ICE cars lined up there getting gas. Not only do we not have to do that anymore, but it's free at the SCs. :biggrin:

 

[EdA]

I called about the SB snow. Also late in the evening I just pull in sideways

 

[Enadler]

You should still call even though it is not officially opened. This info is important for Tesla to have. I called about it 2 weeks ago. We should just try to keep this top of mind so that it is repaired prior to opening.

Congrats from me as well - enjoy!

I was there a little after noon today, and had the same issues with the nearer two chargers (I think they're 2A and 2B), then charged successfully on 1B. But when I first plugged into 1B I got a red due to a poor connection. With these thick cables and extended cold that further limits their flexibility, you need to park close enough but not too close I guess. However I had trouble on 2A or 2B previously, and like today successfully charged on 1B, so it could be that the #2 charger isn't fully operational. Unfortunate, because 1A is snowed under, leaving only one available charger. I was going to call Tesla but then realized that these SCs aren't yet officially open - perhaps this is a reason - so I wasn't comfortable asking them to fix something not yet released.

 

[Iz]

Alright! I picked up my P85+ this afternoon and it had about 200 miles of charge. I drove around quite a bit (as a newbie, of course) not really paying attention to power usage.. .I ended up at the NB side of this Greenwich SC about 54 miles later, using up about 85 miles of rated charge.

Congratulations. It looks beautiful. The far end charger is definitely ICED!