When most people think of scaffold, they think of it in its simplest terms. Generally, that amounts to putting scaffold up against a building to paint, install siding, or do masonry work. However, system scaffold, more commonly known as ring pole is incredibly versatile and allows for a wide range of projects with a scope that goes far beyond just setting up scaffold along the side of a building. For Seacoast Scaffold, there’s no better recent example of this then the job we recently completed in Rockefeller Plaza, in setting up a miniature ski slope for the TODAY Show and the U.S. Ski Team Winter Olympic hopefuls.
After being contacted by Brad Clark at the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) in Lake Placid, NY, a plan was made for Seacoast to take a crew down to New York City to create the ski jump out of scaffold for a live television performance on NBC. Now, this is where Seacoast Scaffold’s versatility comes in. The TODAY Show begins airing at 7 a.m., and otherwise, New York City is a pretty busy place. This meant we needed to erect the scaffold overnight. A truck of equipment and two more trucks carrying an erection and dismantle crews headed for New York, and began building at 8 p.m.
Under these unusual time constraints, the team had the 10’x10’ top platform sitting 12’ high with stair access and a 30’ slope at 33° completed and ready to go for the morning ski exhibition. The crew used aluminum beams across the staging to lay laminated boards down. On top of the boards, plywood was screwed down before a dump trailer was brought in and snow was loaded onto the incline and onto the street to create the ski run.
Following the airing of the ski exhibition, the crew worked on dismantling the scaffolding and equipment and was back in Maine the following afternoon. This build, in conjunction with ORDA and NBC Universal showcased not only the versatility of ring pole scaffold, but also of Seacoast Scaffold’s builders. This was an unusual job that we are tasked with from time to time, along with projects like creating television towers for events at Sunday River or locally for the Portland Museum of Art, scaffold isn’t just for scaling the side of a building.