From Concept to Construction: Inside Electrical Design

July 15, 2026

Every new business, every relocated facility, every stretch of underground conduit starts the same way, as a question. Where does this go? What does the city need to see before it says yes? Long before a single permit is approved, our design department is already working through the answers.

We sat down with the Torres Ratcliff, Design Manager, to give us some more insight into the day-today work behind our permit designs and what sets this team apart.

What We do?

Our team supports every discipline across the company, from the Midwest to the East Coast, but our focus tends to center on two things: new business development and facility relocation. We take developments in the different cities we serve and translate them from a TED design into an AutoCAD Draft, with a focus on staking and conduit drawings that map out exactly where infrastructure needs to go.

That translation matters more than it might seem. Our drawings are what allow permitters in each municipality to understand what’s happening with a project before they approve it. A project’s scope can range widely, from something as small as a pole relocation to a stretch of five miles of underground work.

When Two Projects Become One

A recent project captures that range well: a new business design for a package delivery company and a trucking company, both needing brand new facilities and, as it turned out, both located just down the street from one another, coming out of the substation department work. The proximity meant a lot of back and forth, coordinating where one project’s scope ended and the others began. It also meant real collaboration, not just with the client, but with the construction crew on the ground making it happen. It’s the kind of project that reminds us design work rarely happens in isolation.

The Standards behind the design

Every design carries the weight of standards that vary by municipality: what a city wants to see, what it won't accept, and what's safe to build as safety is most important. Property ownership also adds another layer: where infrastructure gets placed isn't just a technical decision, it's a legal and practical one. Add in environmental considerations, functionality and getting every party on the same page, and design becomes less about drawing lines and more about building consensus. Ratcliff says,

"The number one thing I'd like to point out...is that we often overlook the fact that what we do in design and drafting is needed throughout every industry: every manufacturer, every utility, and every piece of infrastructure."

Showing up is the whole job

Ask clients what they value most, and the answer isn't complicated: our team shows up. Whether that's meeting on-site, answering questions, or going back to the drawing board, being physically present and responsive is often what solves a problem faster than an email chain ever could. If there's a breakdown in communication, the fix is often as simple as driving out, taking a look, and pointing to exactly where things disconnected.

That same hands-on approach extended across an enormous footprint. Our team has worked in neighborhoods spanning the entire Chicagoland area, as far north as the Wisconsin boarder, south past Kankakee, and well beyond the city's edge, sometimes requiring drives of two and a half hours or more to reach a project site at our Chicago office. Ratcliff says,

"If the engineers are the doctors of infrastructure, the design team are the skilled nurses who come in and take care of the projects, the patients, day by day, hour by hour, making sure everything is going well."

Cover Photo by ThisisEngineering (Pexels)

Torres ratcliff

design Manager