What will You do with $1 Trillion in Infrastructure Spending?

For our customers in city, county and state government agencies, the recent Infrastructure Bill has put their budgets in the spotlight. A billion dollars is likely to get some attention, but a trillion dollars gets everyone’s attention.

Truth #1—Decades of budget cuts at every level have left most government agencies with a backlog of priority infrastructure projects that, nevertheless, could not be funded. Many of those projects will be getting the green light. Consequently, there’s going to be a lot of work getting done.

Truth #2—With that much money on the line, it’s not a question of there being strings attached. This is, after all, federal funding. There are always strings. The key will be figuring out the nature and the number of strings and working with them.

We’re not going to pretend we can help municipalities with all their upcoming plans and decisions, but Legacy can help in a few areas.

First off, we can help you connect the dots when you’ve decided you need a structure. Ten+ years of experience with government organizations as customers has taught us a few things. We’ve learned about “the strings”--about funding and contracts and bid lettings and the not-so-obvious intricacies of working with the regulations that municipalities need to obey.

Another way we can help is by providing structures that cities and counties need right now, such as:

Landfills and Wastewater Treatment

With our landfill and wastewater projects, our proprietary fabric provides a cover that is durable, weather resistant and controls odor. The translucent material creates a natural energy-saving environment by allowing in natural light. Customized fabric buildings have the capability to create negative air pressure for hazardous waste decontamination and volatile containment. ExxoTec™ fabric provides enough diffused light for safe storage and daytime operations.

The Fern Hollow water treatment plant project was designed, manufactured, and installed by our crews overtop the existing water treatment equipment. The decision by the township was driven by a need to reduce maintenance time and costs. Our fabric structures are naturally low maintenance because the fabric cladding sheds dirt and does not rust. This project protected the equipment and tanks inside.

The Southeast County Landfill was a big project. It covered about three acres (139,750 square feet) of land that was being used for a new biosolids composting method. We created an open-air building that allowed the county to increase the productivity of the facility. Our engineering made it possible to consolidate the project in one large building rather than the three structures proposed in the early stages of the project plan.

This was a project that had a tight final deadline and Legacy was working with a partner, TLC Diversified. “The thing that impressed everybody was the fact that Legacy came through and said, ‘Hey, we are going to better our time as far as manufacturing and shipping.’ And if I remember right, they beat it by at least by a month,” said John Elder, Project Manager for TLC.

Salt Storage

Since the beginning of our company, salt storage for DOTs and Public Works Departments has been one of our specialties. Our customers want more than just a covering or shed that keeps the weather off the salt pile. At Legacy, we use solid steel I-beam frames, so that means we don’t need central supports inside the building and increased durability compared to wood or tubular trusses. For a structure that gets a lot of traffic, this clearspan space eliminates obstructions for your truck drivers during loading and unloading. Our frames will also support a conveyor system to make your operations that much more efficient.

With our steel frames, the relationship between salt and corrosion is always top of mind. For years we hot-dipped galvanizing (galvanized) our steel frames and components for salt storage structures, but we were constantly looking for a better solution. We did the research on epoxy coatings, and when we came up with a good recipe, we built a state-of-the-art coating facility at our headquarters. We have a variety of options with the coatings, but our EpoxxiShield™ COR Elite is for the most highly corrosive environments.

Examples of our Salt Storage Projects

Community Center/Offices

At first glance, the Fox Creek Multiplex is a sports facility. This was one of our most complex projects comprising a full hockey arena, a complete aquatics center and a field house and fitness center. In the middle of this project, the city of Fox Creek also wanted a community center and a place for administrative offices. This community center includes a restaurant, a daycare center and rooms for community gatherings. The rise of the popularity of community centers across the country means we could be seeing a lot more of these structures in the future.

The structures we build for cities, counties and state agencies range from open-air pavilions for landfills to completely insulated, enclosed buildings for offices and maintenance facilities. We hope you will look over what we can do before you start planning and budgeting. Buildings done with traditional materials such as wood or metal or brick have their place, but it’s important to remember you do have other options. A fabric structure can meet your organization’s needs and provide some benefits you haven’t considered.

As the Infrastructure Bill rolls out over the next year and with another one in the works, we will be analyzing what it means and how we can help.

We even came up with a slogan: At Legacy, we put the structure in infrastructure.