While many municipalities benefit from standard grating options, custom grating is critical in certain scenarios. Older cities with established infrastructure often need custom solutions due to their legacy systems.
While many municipalities benefit from standard grating options, custom grating is critical in certain scenarios. Older cities with established infrastructure often need custom solutions due to their legacy systems. Some municipalities in areas with environmental challenges, such as heavy snow loads and coastal corrosion, also rely on custom grating to ensure durability and longevity.
Some of the best benefits of custom municipal grating include:
Grating can be engineered to feature precise serrated or checkered patterns, which is essential in high-traffic pedestrian areas because they offer better grip and reduce the likelihood of slip-and-fall incidents.
Standard grating also comes with fixed bar spacing, but custom solutions can feature modified bar designs to accommodate wheelchair wheels and bicycle tires to prevent incidents.
Custom grating can also incorporate reflective strips or textured warning areas, particularly when used for utility access covers, loading areas, or transition zones where safety cues are necessary. Additionally, it can be modified with beveled edges, rounded corners, or toe plates to prevent trips.
Different municipalities experience different weather patterns and environmental conditions. If grating is used in coastal locations, it can be engineered from stainless steel to improve longevity. Grating can also be customized to include a galvanized finish. Although galvanized finishes aren’t as resistant to corrosion as stainless steel, they’re still exceptional and widely recommended for any grating used in outdoor applications.
With standard grating, you get what you purchase. Custom grating can be engineered with standardized connection points and interchangeable components to help municipalities reconfigure installations as infrastructure changes.
Custom fabrication also allows for graduated load ratings within the same installation so that some areas can be designed with lighter-duty sections for normal pedestrian use and with reinforced zones for occasional heavy equipment access.
To further maintain proactivity, grating can be customized to include adjustable height mechanisms, removable sections, and mounting systems for different substrate types.
When grating is engineered for the specific application it’s intended for, it will last significantly longer than a standard product that may have to be replaced prematurely or undergo expensive retrofitting or field modifications to function properly.
Standard grating can force municipalities to purchase heavier, more expensive options than actually needed to meet the closest available specification, but customized options can be engineered to exact requirements, helping avoid unnecessary material costs.
And, for large municipal projects, custom fabrication can save both money and time because all grating can be standardized under unique specifications, even across multiple installations.
Morgan’s Welding engineers standard and custom heavy-duty, light-duty, and riveted grates and frames for a wide range of municipal applications, including roads and highways. Some of our past projects include creating special tree grate frames for Disneyland and engineering bike-safe grating in Washington D.C. All gratings we produce are welded to increase strength and can be made from carbon steel, stainless steel, or special alloys based on application requirements. Please contact us today to learn more about how we can customize grating for your application. If you don’t have detailed drawings, our team can produce them for you based on project details.