120 Fabric Covered Buildings Help Clear Roads in the Canadian Rockies

Residents of the Selkirk district in British Columbia (B.C.) rely on HMC Services to salt and sand their roads in the winter. Slippery road conditions are dangerous in the Rocky Mountains, which is why the B.C. Ministry of Transportation contracts out road maintenance to HMC Services. Located in Revelstoke, a small community in the eastern corner of B.C., HMC Services looks after the maintenance of the Trans-Canada Highway as well as other well-traveled roadways within the district.

Road foreman, Bill Rear, explains, "HMC Services is a fairly large company. We employ approximately two hundred people in the province of BC and in three contract areas." With such a major contract and a lot of distance to cover, HMC Services turned to fabric covered buildings that would be portable and large enough to store equipment. "In order to do our job, we have to have a certain amount of equipment, large amounts of equipment actually, as well as personnel, buildings, and materials to carry on with this business."

"There's plenty of room for garage operations, maintenance operations and storage.  This fabric building provides so many benefits."  Bill Rear

Rear sees firsthand the benefits of using fabric covered buildings. "A great advantage with this type of building is that you can house all your equipment inside with so much room." HMC Services can store over two sanding trucks per building, with a lot of space left over. Entering and leaving the buildings is a simple process because of the clear-span interior. Drivers do not have to worry about poles, which increases maneuverability and allows them to dump sand in easier. "There's plenty of room for garage operations, maintenance operations and storage. This building provides so many benefits."

Installation time and design were two crucial factors when HMC Services chose their storage buildings. "The construction of these is the basic lock block - looks like a Lego set. But the advantage of this is when you need some coverage or a shed in a hurry, these things go up in a really quick time. It doesn't take a month of construction," says Rear. "They can put them up in a matter of a couple of days. And to us here, out in this remote location, that's a must."

Since 1998, the B.C. Ministry of Transportation has relied on over 120 fabric buildings for storage. Rear says, "We find these to be extremely valuable in our day-to-day operations. We find these buildings useful in extreme weather conditions when we need to work on our equipment. It's just an invaluable tool for business."