The unusual conditions – When Construction Management company Stahlman Group of Concord NH contracted with Dairy Farmers of America to perform a Multi-Million dollar upgrade to their Starbucks Frappaccino bottling plant, they faced some unusual constraints.  They knew they would be taking delivery of thousands of feet of raw materials to be used by pipe fitters to fabricate the quality connections during the plant renovation.  The production area needed to be a clean and dry environment.  Because the entire footprint of the plant was a sterile food processing facility,  there was no interior floor space that could be allocated to do this fabrication. 

The solution was to install a 30′ x 45′  frame tent with 13 foot eaves (standard is 7′) to enable the lifts and trucks to load/unload out of the elements.  The tent was outfitted with a custom size wall at the same height which could be  slid open and closed, like a shower curtain.  The tent was initially contracted for a period of 4 months and then extended two additional months for  weather protection as winter approached.

A second tent measuring 20′ x 30′ was ordered by Mechanical Contractor Walton & Co of York for a special 2 month project they were involved in at the site.

Safety Challange – when a tent is installed with 13′  legs, the wind load is increased exponentially. The addition of sidewall adds another factor to be taken into consideration.  To handle this unusual requirement, Senior Tent Foreman Matt Anderson had our customer service personnel price the labor and materials needed for the safe installation consisting of:

1. Leg bracing with a 10 foot triangulation brace and fittings in order to transfer the  levering forces from the legs and eave fittings down to the ground anchors.
2. Special soil anchoring into the adjacent highway bank (see first picture) which would supply over 4000 pounds of hold down force (4 times the normal)
3. Special concrete anchoring into the slab with expansion anchors rated to insure a 5000# hold down force
4. Purchase custom panels of sidewall sized to each bay, using a heavier fabric with reinforcing at the attach points to avoid fabric failure in wind.
5. 2 reach lifts to meet the height requirements to install the unusually high profile.

4000# anchoring into Rt 15 bank – raw materials staged for Pipe Fitting

5000# anchoring into concrete slab

13 Ft eave with special bracing prior to sliding sidewall installation