Design-Built Poles Revitalize Downtown Mason City, IA
After receiving a grant for enhancing its aging streetscape, Mason City, IA partnered with Valmont to create a set of highly engineered street lighting poles. Once Valmont’s team of engineers had mapped the city’s aesthetic desires, target time frame, and other ideas, it began creating products that would match the multiple stakeholder requirements.
Determined to attract more people downtown, Mason City envisioned a meeting place where pedestrians could come together to enjoy cafés, restaurants and shopping venues. The poles had to fit to the surroundings and help with the revitalization of the area. At first, the city considered building the poles entirely out of aluminum, but to stay on budget and within foundation footprints, Valmont’s engineers consulted the city about ideal material and product choices. Since the visual goals dictated the project, Valmont worked closely with the client and the project architects in finding creative ways to satisfy the customer vision.
For example, steel was suggested as the main pole material to achieve a thinner and stronger pole design, and banners were made of cloth instead of metal to reduce the load on the poles. Additionally, the selection of break-away banner arms reduced loading, which brought the project within budget. An aluminum shroud was also added to provide a sleek finish for the pole arms. By balancing the client’s desires and resources correctly, Valmont was able to achieve the required aesthetics by augmenting the look of a standard product.
Meeting each of the customer criteria – an up-scale design, delivery in a short time frame and within budget – would not have been possible without Valmont’s engineering expertise and abundant resources. As a result of Valmont’s commitment to turning client concepts to reality, 55 elegant and budget-friendly poles were delivered to Mason City on schedule.
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