When a small town in the northwest corner of Connecticut decided to replace their 85-year-old wooden ski jump with a modern concrete and steel one, the design required steel beam bending.
What spurred the construction of a new ski jump was the opportunity for Salisbury, Connecticut, to host the 2011 United States Junior Olympic ski jumping championships. Although the town had hosted this event twice before, officials now required a new ski jump.
Components included 16 W12 x 45 beams curved the hard way to a 267ft radius in lengths from 27 to 29ft and 2 W8 x 31 beams curved the hard way to a 22ft radius in lengths of 21ft.
In order to meet the championship deadline, the town of 4000 had to obtain local approval, raise $700,000 through donations, obtain a line of credit from a bank, and design and build the structure–all in a period of 22 months.
With an expedited delivery from Chicago Metal Rolled Products, the curved beams arrived in Connecticut in time for the fabricator and erector to finish the 65-meter (213ft) jump in time for the Junior Olympics.
