Procter & Gamble, Himachal Walkway Tensile Structure

A large manufacturing site generates a lot of pedestrian movement, and on an uncovered site that movement competes with forklifts and delivery vehicles and stops altogether in heavy rain. The brief was a continuous covered walkway along the main internal route — wide enough for two-way foot traffic, weatherproof, and clearly separated from the roads.

Ekra Decor delivered it as a turnkey package: survey and setting-out along the route, 3D structural and membrane design, fabrication of the galvanised steel frame and the welded fabric, and installation and tensioning, over about 2,250 m² in roughly 40 days.

A walkway canopy is engineered as a repeating linear structure. Ekra Decor carries the roof on a single column line along one edge of the path, with the membrane spanning across the width from there, so the walking surface stays completely clear and the columns sit out of the pedestrian flow.

The membrane is form-found and pre-stressed into double curvature so it holds its shape under wind uplift and drains consistently to the supported edge. At Baddi the rain load is significant, so the fall and the edge gutter are sized for a hill-state monsoon, and water is taken away from the walkway rather than dropped across it. The steelwork is designed to IS 800 and the canopy is checked for wind, rain and seismic loading to the applicable Indian codes, with the foundations sized against uplift.

The steel is cut, welded and hot-dip galvanised in the workshop and the membrane is cut and welded into panels off-site, so the canopy arrives as a set of prepared components and the on-site work is fast: cast the edge footings, erect the frame, run and tension the membrane.

On a working plant that sequence is planned around production and internal traffic — the work zone is fenced, lifts and deliveries are timed to quiet periods, and completed lengths of walkway are handed back as they are finished. The full canopy was completed in about 40 days.

P&G’s site gained a continuous covered walkway that keeps staff and visitors dry and shaded and off the vehicle roads, from the gate through to the production and welfare blocks. It is a low-maintenance structure — periodic cleaning and a routine check of the frame and cable tensions.

Ekra Decor builds covered walkways for industrial and institutional clients across the country. See more finished work on the projects page, or read about tensile structures in Baddi.