Huge Army Tanks and track vehicles pass through these strap bifold doors

U.S. Army Maintenance Shops Have Installed Strap Doors

Fort Carson, CO abounds with Schweiss doors

Getting 146 doors installed at one location speaks rather strongly about the quality and reliability of your door provider. But that's the current scorecard of Schweiss BiFold doors at Fort Carson, Colorado (Colorado Springs) where Mortenson Construction (Denver branch) has an ongoing contract with the U.S. Army for the construction of special heated maintenance shops called TEMFs (Tactical Equipment Maintenance Facilities). This means structures big enough for Army tanks and other special military tactical vehicles.

Doors provide lighting and translucent panels that permit a limited
degree of outside visibility to workers / shade when open!

Explained Chris Grundy, Mortenson engineer functioning as project manager on the Fort Carson contract, "In the past, these U.S. Army maintenance shops were using the traditional roller-shutter doors but during the design process of these new buildings we noticed the roller shutter doors created some issues like clashing with an overhead crane which is often a necessary component in view of the size and bulk of some of these Army tank and track vehicles.

"In plain language your overhead shutter door tends to get in the way of the running rail. Plus other factors were lighting and blast resistance issues. So the architects suggested a bifold door might best do the job and with no interior obstructions."

Bifold door delivers another bonus
Leo A. Daley, Minneapolis, was the architectural firm working with Mortenson Construction on the Fort Carson project. Grundy noted the bifold door delivers another bonus. When these 18' vertical by 24'wide bifolds are open you have about a 9' extension which provides some additional protection from the weather elements (shade and rain).

Grundy and his Mortenson crew liked these new design ideas from the architectural firm, especially the bifold door concept. "We started looking around for who makes bifold doors, especially doors as big as we needed for these maintenance shops. I'm not quite sure how we discovered Schweiss but we did. We worked with another company here in Colorado Springs that deals with translucent panels, skylights, etc. They have worked closely with Schweiss and gave us every assurance that Schweiss could build these doors exactly to the specs of the design team."

Building More in 2012. . . We're about to start the 16th structure
That meant special translucent paneling with enough strength to withstand the 'blast load' criteria which is part of the terrorist attack prevention that is now standard procedure at any military installation. This means heavier doors with bigger load requirements than would be used in a typical commercial environment.

Special windows were also installed in several of these bifolds. "We worked closely with the Colorado Springs firm (Christofferson Power & Light ) and our Schweiss tech rep so that we could achieve everything needed in terms of lighting and translucent panels that permit a limited degree of outside visibility to workers. Schweiss provided us with a mockup, in essence a small version of a bifold. Then we worked with Powers to determine the panel sizes to fit properly on the door.

"They delivered the first doors and we've had very little issues in terms of getting the doors installed and functioning. It's been a very successful working relationship since Day 1. Since that first project (2007) we have now built 15 of those TEMFs buildings; we're about to start the 16th structure in spring 2012. And that will get us up about 150 of these Schweiss Doors totally."

Solid, well-built doors
Suffice to say that Grundy is very satisfied with the engineering design of Schweiss doors and the delivery and reliability they have provided. "These are very solid, well-built doors. The design is simple as is the installation, which always helps in the construction business. When things are simple they often work better," is his summary statement.

The subcontractor that supplied the panels for these shops also did the installation of the bifold doors. An important closing question: Would you recommend the Schweiss door if someone asked you for an opinion? Responded Grundy, "Yes, very definitely. We've now put up 150 of these things. What else is there to say?"

16 Large Structures just like this one!