DuraGates cantilever hardware systems offer sliding gate solutions from simple 4-foot residential deck gates to large scale 60-foot long industrial gates.

For today’s blog we will look at how the CGS-350.5XL hardware was specified to carry a massive 58-foot long gate weighing over 7,000 pounds, and cantilevering out over a 40-foot opening.

The Children’s Hospital at the National Research & Innovation Campus in Washington, DC is currently undergoing a large-scale reconstruction. Part of the campus redesign placed the main loading dock area directly adjacent to the main entrance and campus access road. While a vital component to the campus, the loading dock was seen as a visual distraction from the many existing and soon to be constructed modern buildings.

Architects on the project (Elkus/Manfredi Architects Ltd., of Boston) specified a massive gate that, when closed, would act as a vision screen to block off the loading dock from view. The location of the existing buildings and drive aisles did not allow for swinging gates or double leaves, this had to be one single gate. After evaluating multiple hardware systems, the project architects contacted AIDI to discuss their gate design and we were able to configure a DuraGates solution to carry the 7,000 pound 58-foot 4-inch long gate using the CGS-350.5XL hardware.

The gate fabrication and installation was awarded to Extreme Steel Inc., a structural steel specialist out of Winchester, Virginia. The DuraGates Team at AIDI worked closely with Mike Cahak and Extreme Steel Inc. to ensure the gate was configured correctly for the XL carriages to carry the weight load and also ensure that the gate design had sufficient diagonal bracing and trussing to prevent any gate sag. When asked why Extreme Steel was selected to build the gate and awarded the project, Mike replied “Because we are Badasses and everyone else was scared of designing / building / installing and warrantying a 7,000 pound cantilevered gate.

Mike said this was not his first cantilever gate project, but definitely the biggest and his first use of DuraGates hardware as it was the only hardware he could find capable of handling the 7,000 pound weight load. The angled tail design also helped to minimize any gate sag. Per Mike, “Originally this was manually operated and could be opened and closed by one man.” Since the gate installation, the gate is now mechanically operated.