
NEWPORT NEWS — Past the Fort Eustis military base, a cream-colored building with black trimmed windows and front doors is hidden behind winding roads and a forest of trees in one of the city’s many industrial parks off Warwick Boulevard.
Amplified Concrete Solutions Global is a manufacturing company that specializes in building shelters using concrete canvas, a flexible fabric infused with concrete particles, as well as selling the material to clientele. The company moved its headquarters from Colorado to Virginia less than a year ago.
“It’s essentially concrete on a roll,” said Hudson Grigg, director of products and co-founder of ACSG.
The combat concrete shelters are inflated tents with two lockable steel doors that can be used for disaster relief, humanitarian aid, military operations and other purposes.
The shelter’s exterior must be thoroughly covered with water before use and “set” for 24 hours, Grigg said.
“You can’t overwater it,” said Brent Tranium, ACSG marketing.
Inside the 118,000-square-foot facility, the shelters are built, stored and transported using forklifts and cranes to move the rolls of concrete materials and to fold the completed structures into large wooden boxes for transport.
The company sells two different sized inflatable shelters: The CCS270 and the CCS540. The CCS270 is the smaller shelter, measures 270 square feet, and the CCS540 is 540 square feet. It can take anywhere from one to two hours to set up the shelters.
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Both shelters are fireproof, saltwater resistant and wind resistant up to 134 mph. The interior of each shelter is also lined with a white plastic tarp that can be sterilized, Grigg said.
The military shelters, exteriors of which are about a half-inch thick, can cost anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000 and lasts for about 50 years. The shelters can also be for personal use and potential clients can contact the sales department for prices, according to the company’s website.
Currently, the company is “in discussions with” potential clients, including the Navy, FEMA and VDOT.
Amplified Concrete Solutions Global is at 230 Pickett’s Line.
You can visit their website or follow them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.