The Los Angeles Trade-Technical College (LATTC) is a fully accredited public community college that offers academic courses along with (hands-on) vocational training programs. The 25-acre campus is located at the south end of the historic district adjacent to downtown Los Angeles, California. The facility is currently in the midst of numerous revitalization and expansion projects and one project that was recently completed is a new campus entry streetscape that showcases widened sidewalks, parkway planters, lush landscaping and a brand new monument sign of the college’s well know initialism (LATTC). Each individual letter used in the sign was custom fabricated into seventeen foot high, three-dimensional tube steel assemblies, then completely hot-dip galvanized for the ultimate in substrate steel corrosion protection before receiving a final duplexed barrier coat of paint. The sign was then installed radius to the street corner, serving as a welcoming new entry point for students.

The hot-dip galvanizing of this project required that several additional measures be taken into account, starting with the galvanizer personally visiting the customer’s facility. Here, the galvanizer marked-up each piece of material, ensuring the uniquely designed letters would have the proper vent and drain-hole placement before arriving at the plant. Later, after the hot-dip galvanizer received the material, it was segregated at the facility so it could be run through on dedicated dip racks to ensure both optimal time in the kettle and consistency across the dips. Lastly, the signage was carefully loaded on a truck and shipped off to be duplex painted, which was primarily specified to give the hot-dip galvanized signage a contrasting pop of color, helping it to stand out against its muted urban background. 

Professional vocational programs offered to the community at reasonable rates are of paramount importance here in California which is home to the single largest manufacturing base in the country. As hot-dip galvanizers we service many of these different (industrial) industries and a recurring theme we witness year-after-year is companies experiencing an increased shortage of qualified employees entering the trade fields, including (but not limited to) welders, forklift operators, maintenance technicians and truck drivers. The LATTC plays an integral role in helping to educate and train students for the numerous trade positions that are an essential and fundamental part of our economy’s workforce.