City of Hartford Dept. of Public Works
Challenge – Replacement of a wood structure
Solution – Hercules Truss Arch Building
Size – 72′ wide x 108′ long
Application – Salt storage
Established in 1784 and appointed the sole capital city of Connecticut in 1875, the city of Hartford covers 17.3 square miles and has a population of 125,000, making it the fourth largest city in the Constitution State. As winters become longer and more crippling, the city must quickly respond to snow and ice removal for its residents, commuters and workers that account for a general metropolitan area of over 1.2 million people.
Bob Umashankar has been the city’s civil engineer and project manager since 2005, and recently concluded that instead of replacing a roof on the city’s wooden salt shed, they would replace the building with a more sustainable solution. “Not only did the roof need to be replaced on the old structure, but we were looking for a larger area to store more material,” Umashankar said.
After conducting some online research, Umashankar learned that a fabric structure had several benefits aside from bulk material storage, and ultimately chose ClearSpan Fabric Structures, which has its home offices just 10 miles away. “We went with a fabric building due to its fast construction timeline and low cost,” added Umashankar. “We needed a new building quickly, and ClearSpan presented a good plan and was very helpful.”
The 72′ wide by 108′ long Hercules Truss Arch Building has been performing very well, allowing the city’s public works department to store an abundant supply of salt ahead of the winter season. “We’ve found that for operational and functionality purposes, the fabric building from ClearSpan has been working out much better than the wood structure,” concluded Umashankar. “It’s also very nice looking!”
