Many impressive hot-dip galvanized projects are measured by their size, beauty or complexity but sometimes what is the most impressive is simple economy. Sometimes the simple and unbeatable economics of a project is what makes it impressive. Case in point, when a small town wants a low-cost way to cover an outdoor skating rink.

Maskinonge is a native American word meaning a deformed pike (a fish). Why they chose to name this area in that way is lost to time, but today the town of Maskinonge (population 2,300) on the northern shore of the mighty Saint Lawrence River is well known to fishermen from far and near for the excellent fishing found on its namesake river.

When many of the locals aren’t fishing, being good Canadians, they are drawn to hockey and other ice sports. The city leaders were looking to improve the usability of their sports complex, particularly to extend the skating season of their non-refrigerated skating rink. This combined with the desire for a weather protected venue for all kinds of activities and festivals led to a project to cover the rink with a roof structure.

Given the diminutive size of the local community cost was a severely limiting factor and so the hunt was on for the most cost-effective way to provide weather protection at minimal cost with long maintenance free service life. It quickly became obvious that steel provided unbeatable cost advantages over all alternative methods and its factory performed fabrication minimized installation cost and time, thus minimally impacting public access to the other facilities at the sports complex during construction.

The only downside of steel construction of course is corrosion, and with the harsh climate reality of Eastern Canada it was doubly a concern. The natural partner to exposed structural steel is of course hot-dip galvanizing. Specifiers quickly identified the unbeatable cost to performance advantages of HDG. The many nearby hydroelectric transmission line pylons stand as silent testament to the decade’s long maintenance-free durability of HDG steel. Steel and hot-dip galvanizing provided a low-cost, long-life and no-maintenance solution that no other materials could even begin to match!

The presence of many high-capacity plants insured that the 250,000 pounds of steel could be hot-dip galvanized as fast as it was fabricated and the legendary durability of the harder than steel coating easily withstood transit and erection impacts. The steel was erected ahead of schedule and with a budget much lower than any comparably performing solutions.

While not a large or glamourous project this snapshot of a small structure in a small town really highlights the incredible cost effectiveness and performance of HDG steel now more important than ever in today's inflationary reality.