I kinda have to side with Steve on This one,, I've just completed
(in the past 10 months) installing two of the Trylon 96' towers. But,
When I had the holes dug my backhoe operator was able to dig the
hole and put the bottom undercut into the hole with the machine
and bucket that he brought to the job. Yes the undercut was a
little bigger (about 1') but that's what the concrete was for, filling
the hole. A building inspector will probably NEVER condemn
you for using MORE concrete that the plan calls for,
When a Building Inspector check the Trylon plan he just wants
to see the plans, the hole, the undercut, the re-bar and
UNDISTURBED soil. Oh, one other thing in California,
the Crush test for 3000 # concrete
I think the solution to the 'hole problem' is one of using the
tools and skills 'that you brought to the table' ,
IE: hire the proper people and equipment to do the correct JOB,
Also as to the OSHA rules, I don't think a small company digging
a hole falls under OSHA regs, don't you have to have at least 10-15
employees before OSHA 'raises it's ugly head?
nuf said, back to my work at hand
Bob Smith
NA6T
Robert Smith Consulting
"Wireless Installations -- Government, Businesses & ISP's"
F.C.C. Licensed-Commercial & Amateur Services
A.R.S NA6T
ARRL Life Member
1-530-591-2230 (cell in Colusa-Yuba-Sutter-Glenn-Butte Counties)
1-707-964-4931 w/answering machine
Fort Bragg, California 95437
"On The Air-Conditioned Mendocino Coast, In REAL Northern California"
No trees were destroyed in the sending of this message.
However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 11:18:42 EDT
From: K7LXC@aol.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Pad and Pier Foundations
To: towertalk@contesting.com, nv8a@att.net
Message-ID: <210.477678b.3003e7d2@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
In a message dated 7/10/2005 10:39:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
towertalk-request@contesting.com writes:
> The ability to dig an "undercut" hole no doubt depends on the soil. I
gave a local concrete contractor the AN Wireless foundation plan, and he
said there was no way to dig such a hole. He said the only way to do a
pad and pier foundation around here would be to dig the hole the size of
the pad, construct a form the size of the pier, then backfill.
A couple of comments about the Trylon base design. First, IMO it's a
stupid design. I'm sure there's a valid engineering reason to have the bottom
belled-out but it's not only dangerous to be in a hole that deep but it's also
illegal per OSHA rules to be that deep in a hole without being shored up. This
was designed by an engineer in an air-conditioned office that never has to
install one of them. In many cases the soil won't allow it anyway.
Second, the design calls for 7 yards of concrete. Make the hole bigger
(usually happens when you use a backhoe anyway), put in a little more
concrete,
and you're good to go. The Trylon design is one-size-fits-all so there's some
engineering overhead already built in.
Cheers,
Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH -
A professional tower erector, not an engineer
Cell: 206-890-4188
-
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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