The Beginning
Bruce Hartman founded Hartman Products, LP following a long tenure in Heavy Highway Construction dating back to the 1980’s. He worked on many projects that included building bridges, chemical plants, sewage plants, and generator plants. Some of his work included using stay-in-place galvanized decking for forms for decking on bridges and buildings instead of using the old wood forms previously used. He saw that this process was much faster and less expensive due to the decking staying in place and not having to be stripped.
As a Highway Maintenance Manager for the DOT in the 1990’s, Bruce Hartman understood the need for proper drainage systems that were easy to install and manage as well as being reliable over time.
As the Stormwater Industry advanced in the 1990’s, more and more plastic pipe was being used for stormwater drainage on highways. This HDPE stormwater culvert pipe was being manufactured by Advanced Drainage Systems, Hancor, and Lane Enterprises to name a few.
Bruce wanted to use the HDPE stormwater culvert pipe but was not allowed to use it by his District Engineer unless he built a headwall or endwall on the ends of the pipe, which was very time consuming and costly to do. If he had some skilled people, they would have to form the headwall or endwall on the end of the drainage pipe with wood forms and then pour the concrete. After the concrete cured, they would have to strip the forms. This was usually a 3-day process. He could buy pre-cast ones and set them, but that was costly and dangerous because of the weight of the pre-cast endwalls or headwalls. Bruce was looking for a better solution.
