---

ST. LOUIS – Four projects by St. Louis Chapter of the National Electrical Contractor Association (NECA) contractors will be vying for awards in construction excellence given by the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Missouri.  Guarantee Electrical Co. and PayneCrest Electric, Inc., both members of NECA and the Electrical Connection partnership, each had two projects named finalists for the 2022 AGC Construction Keystone Awards.   St. Louis NECA partners with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1 to form the Electrical Connection.

The Guarantee projects named finalists include:

·         Benson Hill Crop Accelerator in St. Louis.  The 47,000-square-foot Crop Accelerator repurposed a warehouse to give Benson Hill a “more than twenty-fold expansion in testing capacity.” It includes 24 cutting-edge growth chambers that serve as miniature labs of varying sizes, seed prep areas, a front office, and break room – all requiring a complex and robust electrical infrastructure.

 Benson Hill Crop Accelerator 

·         Nestle Bloomfield Expansion in Bloomfield, Mo. -- A fast-track expansion for Nestle-Purina’s cat litter plant in Bloomfield, Mo.  It required electrical/communications installations in a 100-foot-by-100-foot work zone inside a building only 25% complete and swarming with multiple trades. The addition is fully automated. Nestle-Purina notes it is the first cat litter facility in its network to self-manufacture its own packaging.

                     

     Nestle Bloomfield Plant Expansion

The PayneCrest finalist projects are:

·         Benson Hill for Seneca Realty in St. Louis – A new 160,000-square-foot, four-story facility housing agriculture lab areas, climate-controlled seed storage and growing areas on the campus of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. The building features flexible research laboratories, shared workspaces, and additional open common elements such as lounges, fitness, yoga and break space designed to encourage collaborative engagement and to improve the quality of the work environment beyond the laboratory bench.

Benson Hill for Seneca Realty

• Mizzou NextGen Precision Health Institute in Columbia, Mo - A 265,000-square-foot, five-story precision health facility providing space for more than 60 principal investigators. The NextGen Precision Health Initiative helps Mizzou translate fundamental research from laboratories to effective treatments and devices, which will benefit all Missourians as well as the rest of the world.
  
  

 Mizzou NextGen Precision Health Institute 

Since 1997, when the AGC Keystone Awards competition was launched, more than 100 Electrical Connection member contractor projects have been honored.  The prestigious construction awards program salutes projects for safety, proficiency in overcoming challenges and the quality of delivery, including maintaining budget and schedule. In addition to Guarantee and PayneCrest, Electrical Connection contractors that have earned AGC Keystone honors in the past include Kaiser Electric, Sachs Electric, Aschinger Electric, and Bell Electrical.

Winners of the 25th anniversary Keystone Awards will be announced and celebrated at the AGC’s Construction Awards Gala scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022 at the River City Casino & Hotel in St. Louis.  Learn more at www.agcmo.org.

The Electrical Connection partnership provides safe and reliable commercial, industrial and residential electrical construction, maintenance, repair and replacement services across Missouri, the nation and the world. It is an important resource for business and civic leadership for new technology, including disruptive technologies, advancing electrical and communication infrastructure.  Learn more at www.electricalconnection.org.

-end-