Here at Arc-Zone.com, we love to hear about people recycling their old scrap metal – saving the environment, doing some welding, and most of all – making art! In Silver City, New Mexico, Stuart Engal of Custom Steelworks is recycling old lightposts. With a little ingenuity, they are going to become a brand new welcome arch spanning the entrance of Silver City’s historic downtown center.
New gateway to visit visitors to downtown Silver City
By Christine Steele Sun-News Bureau Chief
Posted: 07/31/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT
A local business owner is helping to create a custom-designed archway that will span Broadway and welcome visitors to historic downtown Silver City as part of a long-awaited Silver City MainStreet program.
Tommy Johnson, of Custom Steelworks, 202 Bullard St., welds steel plates joining four recycled Silver City lamp posts... (Sun-News photo by Christine Steele)
Custom Steelworks, 202 S. Bullard St., a local metal fabrication business owned by Stuart Egnal, is fabricating the nearly 20-foot columns that will support a steel sign that will say “Downtown Silver City.”
The Downtown Gateway Arch will be installed on Broadway, on the east end of the bridge near Hudson Street. The project is estimated to cost $100,000, including in-kind and donated services and materials.
Egnal and employee Tommy Johnson have been working for several weeks on the project, welding together four steel columns that had previously been downtown lightposts. The lightposts date back to 1949. The city had been stockpiling them to use in the project, Egnal said.
