In a previous life I had responsibility for a public safety tower in
Clewiston, FL. The 350' tower had been built around 1980 on leased land. The
land owner leased an adjacent plot to an AM broadcast station that put up
around a 200 foot tower that had its guys intertwined with ours. (Our wimpy
government lawyers wouldn't do anything about the breach of our contract by
the land owner.)
I sent a trusted tower company down to check out the tower around 1990. I
got a phone call telling me that one of the inner anchors was down to about
pencil thickness just below the ground and the others were seriously
degraded. I immediately had new anchors installed, but required that they be
poured several inches above grade so that the anchor rods were not in
contact with the soil. The guy wires, above the turnbuckles, were then
connected to a ground rod.
I can't tell you how well that worked long term, as a year or so later the
property owner's brother had a few beers one day and decided to bush hog the
field. The Florida Highway Patrol Trooper assigned to check the tower lights
every night didn't see any lights that night...
The brother snagged one of the guy wires and pulled our tower over. It
didn't hurt the AM tower at all.
Once again, our wimpy government lawyers wouldn't do anything. We removed
out equipment (outdoor cabinets), stopped paying the rent, and built a new
tower on some DOT land about 15 miles away.
About 5 years later, I was in a new assignment and got a call from one of
our wimpy attorneys. He wanted to know everything that had occurred over the
history of the tower. It seemed that the property owner was now suing the
state for the money to have the destroyed tower removed from the land! Last
I heard, the state paid $20,000 to a salvage company to remove it...
Doug
K4AC
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