The Vikings Stadium is going up steadily despite this winter’s extreme weather conditions. But how can outdoor construction move forward, even in the dead of winter? One Minnesota business helps make it possible — even on the coldest of cold days.
FlexTemp Systems manufactures and its affiliated business Winter Construction Specialties sells and rents surface heating equipment used in winter construction for ground thawing and concrete curing. FlexTemp currently has five portable surface-heating units installed at the Vikings Stadium project to keep the ground thawed and ready to go. Its top-of-the-line machine, the Fusion 3000, is specifically engineered for thawing frozen ground as well as warming and curing concrete — even at 30 degrees below zero.
“Generally, you’ll find six feet of frost on the ground in a Minnesota winter — eight feet if it’s brutally cold like it has been this month,” said Chuck Sanvik, FlexTemp Systems. “FlexTemp Systems can thaw one foot of frozen ground per day with our machines, which are similar to home in-floor heating systems — just above ground. We lay a complex network of hoses on the ground, run them full of antifreeze, and cover it all with insulating blankets.”
“We build all year round and in all weather conditions. Here, in our home state of Minnesota, that can mean cold weather construction in winter which can be challenging to project schedules and budgets,” said Jason Brown, Mortenson Construction.
“For that reason, it’s important for us to work with partners who are also experts in these types of conditions, deliver value, and can keep our projects moving forward. We selected FlexTemp and Winter Construction Specialties on the new stadium project in Minneapolis for this reason.”
A similar system is used to cure concrete, allowing work to continue throughout the winter and resulting in more efficient scheduling of construction crews and equipment. Winter Construction Specialties’s cold weather concrete curing system handles pre-pour warming, thaws sub grades and cures concrete walls, forms, columns and slabs without the need for expensive and time-consuming heated enclosures.
The company also has been on site, helping winter construction run smoothly for many other projects, including:
• TCF Bank Stadium
• Target Field
• Walker Art Center expansion
• Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport (tram)
• Target (various locations)
But large facilities like the Vikings or Twins Stadiums aren’t even FlexTemp’s most challenging projects. “Wherever there’s frost, FlexTemp Systems can save the day, from a small concrete curing job to a giant excavation,” added Sanvik. “The most difficult project we ever worked on was a SuperTarget in West St. Paul — we thawed 83,000 square feet of ground, through asphalt, using more than 10 miles of hose, so construction could continue through a very harsh winter.”
The company operates in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and in Canada, and plans international expansion in 2015.
St. Cloud, Minn.-based FlexTemp Systems manufactures; and its affiliated company Winter Construction Specialties, sells and rents; surface heating equipment used in winter construction for ground thawing and excavating and concrete curing. Its proprietary equipment delivers results even under the harshest conditions to get jobs done effectively — on time and on budget.
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