As much as we have enjoyed having this piece of Edmonton signage history in our shop for the last few months, we couldn’t be more excited to see our re-created Retro Sign finally installed at its new home, the Edmonton Downtown Neon Museum.

Learn more about the manufacturing process for this Retro Sign.

Installation Day

The beginning of any installation project starts at our Edmonton manufacturing facility; with crating, loading and securing the display to our flatbed trailer to be transported to the sign install site. With an in-house fleet of equipment that includes three (3) boom trucks, four (4) service vans, a V-Crane, and forklift, any combination of which are used to transport signs from place to place.

Coordination

Given the busy downtown location of the Edmonton Neon Museum (not to mention the many surrounding construction sites), additional coordination and planning were required by our installation department to ensure our trucks would have unimpeded access to the site without compromising the safety of our crews, or other passersby.

As one of our Core Values, safety is the first consideration in the planning of any project; every site is reviewed by the project manager and a site-specific safety plan developed to address all hazards presented.

Did you know that we have achieved and maintained active COR status for our industry-leading safety program?

In this case, an OSCAM (On-Street Construction and Maintenance) permit allowed our team to temporarily close the South-bound lane and sidewalk of 104th Ave to safely position the second installation vehicle in an appropriate position to assist in mounting the sign and fully extend the outriggers of the boom truck.

Hoisting and Mounting

Upon arriving, completing the on-site safety orientation, closing the lane/sidewalk, and securing the work area, our installation team prepare to hoist (lift) the retro sign into place.

Before any sign display is built, our production team review the mounting application (flush, suspended, or flag-mounted for example,) of the display and design a welded “lift-point” at which we secure the hoisting cable.

For this retro sign install, once the hoisting cable was anchored, a secondary tag-line was secured to the display to “guide” the sign into place without any swinging or excessive movements due to the wind.

The installation of a sign like this typically consists of a four-man crew, each with their own responsibilities; one person responsible for manning the boom & hoist, one on a secondary lift in the air (in this case our man-lift) to mount the display in place, and one or two additional people responsible for manning the tag-line(s) and providing ground-level assistance.

Once the display is positioned in its correct place, the installer in the man-lift secured and anchored the retro sign to the pre-existing steel structure of the Neon Museum.

Blanchett Neon installation crews have extensive experience, training, and certifications to safely complete sign installs.

Blanchett Retro Sign Install team:

Completed Retro Sign Install

Big thanks are in order for everyone involved in making this project a reality, and we couldn’t be happier with the final result!  The Edmonton Neon Museum is open 24/7/365 and we hope all museum visitors enjoy this neon sign addition (and a small piece of our own company history,) for years to come.

Connect With Us

We want to hear from you! If you have visited the Neon Museum, have photos of our retro sign or are looking for more information on this or other signage projects, connect with us on Social Media and stay tuned for news on an official Ceremony celebrating this newest addition to the historic Museum!