An article about Seattle Bridge as it appeared in the Daily Journal of Commerce on Jan. 25, 2012.
Journal Staff Reporter
 |
Photo by Katie Zemtseeff
Ken Gilman (left), Martin Walz, Adam Peck and Austin
Thompson stand in front of their 7,000-pound Metal Muncher, which they use to
cut steel plates.
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A specialty bridge company called
Sahale closed its doors in 2010 after the death of its founder, Carroll Vogel.
Now, after a year and a half of ups and
downs, four former employees have reopened the firm under the name Seattle
Bridge. The founders are Martin Walz, Adam Peck, Ken Gilman and Austin
Thompson.
Walz said the work Sahale did was
unique, and he wasn't ready for it to end. Starting a new business in a
recession has been tough, he said, but he and his partners are committed.
“We're going to jump in the pool and
see if we can swim,” he said. “I'd be much more bitter or disappointed if I
didn't try this.”
The founders of Seattle Bridge say
their business will survive because of the unique nature of the work: they make
small bridges for hard to reach places. The company has one project now: a
small bridge for the city of Bellevue. Sahale built about four bridges a year.
The partners have sacrificed a lot for
the business. In December of 2009, Sahale's 14 employees were laid off, and
lost back pay. In July of 2010, Vogel died. Seven of the former employees began
talking about how to resurrect the business.
Photo courtesy Martin Walz
The Needleton Suspension Bridge in Colorado was built
by Sahale before it closed in 2010, but it is the kind of project Seattle
Bridge is going after.
Some got day jobs working for friends
who were contractors. “We all scattered for a bit and did what we could… until
we could come back to doing what we wanted to do,” Walz said.
In January of 2011, the partners made
their last payment and bought the business from Vogel's estate, but they didn't
have any contracts or a home base. Equipment was stored in various places:
rigging, cables and hoists were at a rented lot in Ballard; welders and hand
tools were stored in the garages of the partners and their friends. Large
equipment, like an air compressor, temporary bridge towers and a 7,000-pound
Metal Muncher that cuts steel plate, was stored on a friend's property in
Snohomish.
In August, the team got the contract
with Bellevue, and in October it leased part of a warehouse in Ballard.
Seattle Bridge, like Sahale, creates
unique trail and long-span cable bridges between 100 and 350 feet long. They
are for people, ATVs and snowmobiles, but not large vehicles. Sahale's clients
included the U.S. Forest Service, private parks and private property owners.
Most bridge builders do projects for
people and cars, and generally use cranes for installation, which require
clearing a path or road to the site. Helicopters can be used to fly in
materials, but that's expensive: Gilman said he's seen helicopters cost up to
$1,000 an hour.
Seattle Bridge has a very small environmental
footprint, and its bridges are portable. All the materials can be packed into
bundles and shipped or transported anywhere. No roads or cranes are needed.
By hiring Seattle Bridge, Bellevue
avoided damaging the site of its new bridge in an existing park.
“There have been very few companies
that we've met along the way that do the remote location installation,” Gilman
said.
With Seattle Bridge's system, towers
are built at either side of the bridge site. The team installs two lines at the
top of the towers to connect them. A worker hangs from the lines in a
specialized chair and starts building the bridge at one end, moving slowly
toward the other side as work progresses. A typical bridge takes four to six
weeks.
Gilman said he'd never be able to build
a bridge on his own. He said he loves the team work and the locations of their
projects.
“My first job (with Sahale), I got
packed in on mules and lived in the Sequoia National Forest for 25 days,” he
said. “We could have definitely (let the firm die) and at times we probably
thought we should have, but we each enjoy it a lot.”
Thompson, another partner, is Vogel's
nephew and has worked on bridges since he was a child.
At Seattle Bridge, the partners work on
everything. Bridge pieces are fabricated in house. The formula and small
components stay the same, but everything else is individually created for each
project.
Seattle Bridge also will look for work
nationally. Gilman said the Bellevue project is the closest bridge he's ever
done. Other Sahale projects were in Hawaii, New Hampshire, Georgia and Puerto
Rico.
Starting the firm during a recession
has been tough. To get the Bellevue contract, Seattle Bridge teamed with Jem
Construction. Jem is doing concrete work and hired Seattle Bridge as a subcontractor.
Gilman said the firm will bid for projects in the future and be part of
construction teams.
Gilman said the team was told that when
it had a contract and business plan it would have no problem getting a bank
loan. Once it had a contract with Bellevue, they visited five banks and were
turned down by all. Eventually, one of the partners used his home equity for
the business.
The company is hoping to pick up a
second project soon, and will likely need another loan or line of credit to buy
materials. It's frustrating, Walz said, because the business has tools,
experience and assets. “I would like to think in any other economic time it
likely wouldn't be a problem.”
Waltz and Gilman said Sahale underbid
much of its work, and Walz said they are more realistic about estimating.
Gilman said the website is getting a
lot of hits and they have been getting good feedback from area firms.
The team members are optimistic about
the future. Gilman said he's completely gung ho, but if the economy tanked
again the team could put its equipment back in storage and wait for the next
job.
“The fact that the four of us are
excited about what we've already done to make it happen... It might not be
exactly what we wanted but it's going to survive.”
Katie Zemtseff can be
reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272.
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