In March of this year, APG was awarded the Suntrax Connected/Automated Vehicle Test Facility project by Alston Construction. At nearly $8 million, this contract includes electrical construction, fire alarm, and voice data. We are happy to have Alston Construction as a new partner and are looking forward to a long and successful working relationship.
 
This cutting-edge facility in Polk County, located off I-4 between Orlando and Tampa, is being developed by the Florida Department of Transportation and Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise. It will be used to further the research, development, and testing of new transportation technologies in a safe and controlled manner. The 475 acre site will include a 2.25 mile long, multi-lane test track (the only high speed autonomous vehicle testing area in the southeastern US), a 200 acre infield for connected and autonomous vehicle testing, featuring several simulated transportation environments, a welcome center with offices and classrooms, workshops and warehouses, and multiple test tracks. Once this project is complete, the testing and technological developments that will come out of this facility will improve transportation safety, efficiency, and accessibility for years to come.
 
A project of this technological complexity gives us the opportunity to hone our skills. We are using one of our newest tools, the Trimble System, with the help of our BIM team, to provide a highly accurate layout which will save time during our electrical rough in. In order to keep all areas of this massive site connected, including 18 different buildings, 17.5 miles of voice data cable will be installed, enough to go around the autonomous vehicle test track eight times! This cable will also connect the new fire alarm system, an eight node network across nine buildings, each with a fire alarm panel reporting to two central station communicators. This system will have a global network annunciator in the guardhouse, allowing the security staff to monitor all system events from a single location.
 
All of us at APG were excited to earn this contract and to be a part of a project that will drive the future of transportation. We greatly appreciate having been selected by Alston Construction. We are proud of the hard work of Senior Estimator George Lambert, Project Manager Richie Hollie, Project Superintendent Mike McGuire, Project Foreman John Lenges, Life Safety Project Manager Eric Brockmeier, Voice Data Project Manager Keith Hoover, BIM Specialist Quinton Robertazzi, and the entire team on site. Keep up the great work!

In 2018, Brasfield & Gorrie awarded APG a multi-million dollar contract for the AdventHealth Celebration Tower project. While this hospital expansion was underway, it was decided that the new patient tower would be fed from an expanded CEP. After competitively bidding the job, APG was awarded the CEP upgrade and shortly afterwards yet another contract to fill the third floor of the new patient tower with operating rooms. What began as a mostly shell tower expansion evolved into a $14 million contract that encompassed electrical construction and BIM coordination services. We’re especially proud to have earned multiple contracts after work began, as this paid tribute to the outstanding service and quality we were working hard to deliver. Our team’s dedication and attention to detail paid off in a major way!
 
AdventHealth Celebration is expanding to meet the increasing demand for healthcare in fast-growing Osceola County. The hospital plans to eventually have 400 patient beds, and this new space will allow for the expansion of multiple programs. The patient tower will add about 172,000 square feet spread over five floors, some being built out and others left as shell space to accommodate growth. It will also include a new loading dock and receiving area, an executive administration office space, 80 patient beds, multiple cath labs, and operating rooms. These projects will provide hundreds of construction jobs, new healthcare positions, and even better services for patients—adding value to the entire community.
 
The CEP Generator Upgrade project adds a 4,700 square foot generator building that will hold three new 2mW generators, paralleling gear, and a 5kV system with new medium-voltage substations. This emergency power is especially critical in Florida because of our potential for severe weather and hurricanes, and all this new generator capacity will be put to good use. AdventHealth Celebration will be prepared to face any storm with the assurance that they have life-saving emergency power continuously and reliably available. Working on an existing hospital is always a challenge, but that’s especially true when modifications are being made to the power plant. Intense coordination is required to keep the hospital up and running while the new generators are integrated into the existing system, adding an additional layer of complexity to an already complex job. Our team performed more than 15 major shutdowns, each of which was precisely scheduled and arranged to minimize impact on facility operations. Our decades of experience on major healthcare projects has been critical to our success on site. 
 
All of us at APG were excited to earn these contracts and we greatly appreciate being Brasfield & Gorrie’s contractor of choice. We’re proud of the hard work of Senior Estimator Jonathan Henley, BIM Manager Artie Hackett, Senior Project Manager Bruce Chabotte, Project Superintendents Rick Thomas and Noel Vester, and the entire team. Keep up the great work!

Change has been a constant over the past several weeks and we have all had to be quick to adapt to new guidelines and procedures. As the pandemic evolves, APG is committed to following the latest guidance and using best practices to ensure that we can continue providing an essential service to our community while maintaining the health and safety of our employees. No matter what the future brings, our mission to make a positive difference in the lives and businesses of our customers, partners, employees, and community remains the same. We will always be a team who goes above and beyond in serving our customers and each other.
 
Safety has always been and continues to be our highest priority on every jobsite. In order to stop the spread, we have implemented an exposure prevention, preparedness, and response plan. At the beginning of each workday, the project superintendent or foreman must ask each employee a series of questions to determine if they have been exposed. If the employee answers no to all of the questions, they are cleared to work. If not, they are sent home and given specific instructions to follow. They will be asked to provide clearance from their doctor and/or a negative COVID-19 test result before returning to work. All employees must follow the CDC guidelines to prevent illness, such as maintaining social distancing and practicing good hygiene, and are being provided with personal protective equipment. Extra steps are being taken to regularly clean and disinfect all equipment, tools, and vehicles and to minimize the sharing of these items among employees. We appreciate the efforts of Safety Director Sean Hendry and Safety Compliance Officer Dale Rive in developing and implementing this plan.

​In October of last year, APG was awarded the Amazon KLAL Gateway project by AECOM Hunt. At more than $18 million, this innovative and technologically advanced project  involves electrical construction, life safety, and BIM. More and more people have come to rely on Amazon in their day‐to‐day lives and we are excited to play a role in making that process even more efficient. 
 
This fast‐paced project is scheduled for completion at the end of May. It includes a 223,000 square foot sorting facility, a maintenance building, a service building, and a storage building at the Lakeland Linder International Airport. Amazon already has a fulfillment center in Lakeland, and this new facility will allow the company to fly goods in and out of the nearby airport. It’s a true win‐win for the community, providing revenue and creating 800 to 1,000 jobs when construction is completed.  
 
In order to maintain continual operation, the facility will have one 250kW generator, three 2000kW backup generators, and paralleling switchgear. To ensure that we meet the accelerated schedule, our crews have been working 10 hour days as well as Saturdays. Our construction team, with help from voice/data, recently pulled together to complete the main MDF/UPS room in just one week in order to enable hand‐off of the room to the Amazon IT staff. Our vendors played a key role in helping us procure all of the gear, as well as miscellaneous material needed for us to finish this room in spite of the many last minute design changes. 
 
All of us at APG were happy to earn this contract and we greatly appreciate having been selected by AECOM Hunt. We are proud of the hard work of Vice President of Preconstruction John La Fuze, Life Safety Senior Estimator Jeff Haas, Senior Project Manager Brian Stine, Project Manager Richie Hollie, Life Safety Project Manager Eric Brockmeier, Project Superintendent Vaughn Orluski, and Life Safety Superintendent Rollie Blake. We would especially like to thank our field team for going above and beyond on site every day. Keep up the great work! 

​In November of last year, APG was awarded the Tampa International Airport (TPA)—Main Terminal Curbside Expansion and Central Utility Plant project by Hensel Phelps Construction Co. At nearly $15 million, this contract includes electrical construction, BIM, audio/visual, voice/data, and security. We are looking forward to a successful and long-term partnership with Hensel Phelps and TPA.

​This project involves the addition of a new vertical circulation building (VCB) on the airport’s blue side to streamline arrivals and departures. The blue side curbsides will get four new lanes for arrivals and four for departures, which will be dedicated to passengers with only carry-on bags. This will make things easier and faster for passengers who don’t need to spend much time at the curb. It also includes the addition of a new central utility plant and electrical service building, allowing for future growth, all with no impact to daily operations and while maintaining the first-class customer service experience that passengers have come to expect at TPA. The airport currently handles 21 million passengers annually, and with these improvements and others, it is expected to increase capacity to 34 million passengers a year.
 
This project presents a number of unique challenges to overcome. Because it is separated into two parts, double the work is required for project billing and direct purchase orders. There are nearly 4,000 feet of enclosed bus duct, which will take hours of investigation and coordination with our BIM team confirming the amperages match and the routings align with existing tie-ins. The new vertical circulation building consists of adding onto the existing electrical services with a new 1200 amp distribution board from the normal branch, a 400 amp from the equipment branch, and a 100 amp from the life safety branch. The new central utility plant and electrical service building portion of the project will have eight separate 4000 amp electrical services and a 1500kW diesel generator.
 
This project is just getting under way (substantial completion is expected by December 2021) but we are very excited about this new opportunity and wanted to share a brief overview. All of us at APG were happy to earn this contract and we greatly appreciate having been selected by Hensel Phelps. We are proud of the hard work of Preconstruction—Special Projects Terry Ryan, Senior Project Manager Ted Maczuga, Project Manager Josh Smith, Project Manager Jack Chonsky, Project Superintendent Chris Gobright, and the entire team on site. Keep up the great work!

After several years of hard work, APG was very excited to see the grand opening of the St. Joseph’s Hospital South campus in 2015. We had been chosen by Barton Malow to provide electrical, fire alarm, nurse call, security, structured cabling, and BIM services for the brand-new facility using an integrated project delivery method, commonly referred to as IPD. This massive project remains the largest in our company’s history and we are very proud to have been a part of it!
 
Since then, south Hillsborough County has continued to grow at an incredible rate. Over the past four years, the patients served by St. Joseph’s Hospital South has increased fifty-nine percent. To meet the needs of its current and future patients, BayCare decided to add 176,000 square feet to the existing 360,000 square foot hospital. This major expansion includes a new five-story tower, the addition of 25 emergency department beds with CT, x-ray, and ultrasound capabilities, and a new 18-bed observation unit.
 
Before getting involved with actual construction, APG was awarded the engineering contract to provide mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and telecommunication engineering design services for the entire expansion. These services included determining how to build on an existing site while still preserving BayCare’s signature patient experience. This began with a comprehensive study and analysis of the existing facility’s infrastructure, which relied heavily on our extensive knowledge of the site. Eventually, a carefully coordinated phasing plan was generated and provided to bidders for competitive pricing. Our engineering team’s professional skill shined throughout the design process, and their success on such a complicated project has led to additional engineering contracts at other BayCare facilities.
 
Then in July of last year, as the design progressed and after we competitively bid the project against other electrical contractors, APG was selected by Barton Malow to provide electrical, fire alarm, and structured cabling for the expansion. We’re extremely honored to be worthy of BayCare and Barton Malow’s continued trust in our work, and we’re especially proud to be building something that our own engineers helped to design.
 
Although this multi-phase project isn’t yet complete, we couldn’t wait to feature it because of the phenomenal job our team has done so far. From design conception to system installation, this project exemplifies our steadfast commitment to excellence in construction. Special thanks to Senior Mechanical Engineer/Project Manager Mike Skene, Senior Estimator Jonathan Henley, Senior Project Manager Austin Buxton, and Project Superintendent Brian Faller for the major roles they have played in earning this work and keeping it on track. It takes dozens of talented people to succeed on a project this challenging, and we’d like to thank each and every person who is contributing to its success. Keep up the great work!

As APG begins our 37th year, we wanted to provide an overview of the history of our brand. Branding is something that might easily be taken for granted, but it’s a very important tool to differentiate us from our competitors and to build trust with our customers. Here is the background story of the thought and effort that have gone into our brand over the years. 
 
In November 1983, John Kavula and Jerry Lightner were finalizing their plans to open an electrical contracting company in the Tampa Bay area. John started brainstorming company names and submitting them to the Doan Electric principals from the Goulder and Heiser families who were supporting this new endeavor. Edmund Goulder decided on AP Electric in honor of his father, the founder of The Doan Electric Company, A.P. Goulder. However, that company name was already registered in Florida, so Edmund changed it to APG Electric. John wasn’t sure about the idea of using only initials for our name, but was reminded by Alan Goulder that “if it’s good enough for IBM and UPS, it’s good enough for us.” And it has been, for 36 years. 
 
The next challenge was selecting a logo. Alan Goulder designed the original, which was used for a year before being slightly modified to make it easier to read. After experimenting with midnight blue and silver, John chose midnight blue and burgundy on a light gray background for our colors because they coordinated well. We kept this combination for ten years. 
 
In 1994, everything came together for a new logo, stationery, marketing brochure, and our move into the current Clearwater headquarters. Our fresh start began with the help of graphic designer Liz Cherry, who had moved into a suite next to us in the Live Oaks center in 1993. We had struggled with the gray stationery not looking clean when copied, and the fine line of burgundy closely surrounding our midnight blue logo was difficult to produce. The stationery was switched to white, the colors were changed to teal and purple, Liz designed a new logo and brochure, and we moved into our new space. 
 
After serving us well for twenty years, it was time to modernize our colors and logo in 2014. Our company had also expanded beyond just electrical contracting, so the main brand became simply APG. Each group (Electric, Engineering, Technology, Life Safety, and Security) now has their own custom, targeted logo, falling under the main APG umbrella. Our colors were changed to the dark and light blue that we use currently, with a new logo, headers, website, and vehicle lettering.  
 
As we move into 2020, we will continue to make improvements. We are now using our brand on social media to connect more quickly and easily with our employees and customers. But no matter what may change, our commitment to doing it right, down to the tiniest detail, will always remain the same. We will keep striving to make sure that our public image proudly reflects the hard work, skill, and dedication of our team. 

He worked at the Republic Steel Corporation as a co-op student while at Fenn College, and then full time from graduation until 1981. While there, he became one of the founding engineers of the Nucleonics Division, which supervised the use of nuclear furnaces for the production of steel, and served as the corporation’s radiation control officer.
 
After moving to Florida, Mr. Radcliffe began a second career. When APG needed a professional engineer, he left behind his comfortable retirement to help. He came on board in March of 1991 to supervise our engineering work as our Vice President of Engineering and the qualifier of the business. As the group expanded, his role changed, but his devotion to the job and his high level of professionalism never diminished. He cherished everything about APG and loved reading the Pipeline, saving every issue.
 
After 26 years with us, Tom retired in January 2017, but his influence can still be felt. Each year, a member of the Engineering Group is honored with The Thomas J. Radcliffe Engineering Excellence Award, to recognize the continuous display of the highest standards of morality, character, integrity, and engineering performance. Tom leaves a legacy of excellence.
 
After hearing of his passing, many who knew him shared that “he was such a nice gentleman.” He will be truly missed by our entire team. Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time.