By R. Bruce Wright, CPCU 

"The logical goal of inspections is to spot potential issues and schedule appropriate fixes before they cause serious problems."

When visiting clients in this program, the subject of radio towers comes up  regularly. Recently, a couple of our contacts have asked why we are concerned about them, especially if we don’t have the towers themselves insured. 

That’s a good question with a straight forward answer. Even if the program doesn’t carry the coverage on the tower, that’s not the end of the story. Anything in the fall circle can be damaged, your property or third party owned, and of course WC or public injuries are possible. 

Here’s an experience I had personally some years ago, during a consultation with a client in Florida. 

While meeting with the GM and the Safety Officer, the GM got a phone call that his assistant suggested he take. He learned reported that an owned, 300’ guyed tower had come down. We immediately set out to discover what had happened. When we arrived at the scene we got the story from a somewhat shaken, and very lucky, line worker. The site was a leased plot of land, on a dirt road, accessed via a gravel road, and well back from the nearest paved roadway. The lineman had arrived at the tower around 1:00 PM and was waiting for a co-worker, who had been delayed, to get there too. While he was waiting, an empty log hauler came down the dirt road and turned in to the clearing next to the radio building while the lineman was outside, walking to his truck. As the logging truck completed its turn around and began to head back to the nearby logging site in the woods, the lineman heard a sharp “twang” and turned to see that the truck had snapped a guy wire with the rear upright on the trailer. The tower at first seemed to sway slightly, and then it rapidly began to drop straight down, with guy wires flailing all around. The driver took shelter behind his truck and was lucky enough to avoid any injury, although the truck sustained a broken windshield and extensive dents from the whipping guy wires. The base sections of the tower folded up as they dropped along side the radio shack, and the top half of the tower fell parallel to the radio building, out into the woods. A broken guy hung from a neutral, just feet from a phase wire. Lucky. But not the end of the luck involved here. 

In fact, the reason the lineman was there in the first place was to climb the tower and place an additional antenna on it at the 250’ level. If his partner had arrived as planned at 1:00 PM, you can guess where he would have been when this incident took place. It seems certain that had the lineman been on the tower he would have sustained serious if not fatal injuries. In this case, his partner’s being late was a lucky break indeed. 

That’s just one reason why we care about towers. Many, perhaps most, members of this program similar installations, used to facilitate communications and/or electronic controls within their distribution systems. Tower installations are seen at main office sites, at district or field offices, at substations and other facilities, or like in the case above, on land maintained solely for the purpose of serving as an antenna tower site. As we visit utilities in our program, we find that these towers often are taken for granted rather than treated as a special class of structure needing regular, special attention. 

Towers found at utilities come in a variety of styles. Regardless of the type of tower your utility may own, there are several issues you should address regularly. These include issues of security and maintenance, as well as regulatory requirements. Some of these issues, such as FAA licensing and tower marking requirements, are beyond the scope of this brief article but are important in their own right. Towers over 200' in height are a special class of tower and you should have a local specialist advise you of your responsibilities for obtaining a license and meeting the marker lighting and painting color codes that apply to these taller towers. Many utility towers are less than 200’ tall but these, too, require some regular attention. 

First off, all types of towers, guyed or freestanding, should have a security barrier of some type to limit public access. The goal is to at least discourage both vandals and thrill-seekers that might find the tower an irresistible temptation. Typically, a chain link type fence at least 6' in height (taller is better) is used to surround the tower base and any guy anchors, not just the base of the tower itself, as the story above illustrates. Many utilities with towers at office sites situate the tower inside the perimeter fence that secures the entire property, in order to avoid the need for a special fence just for the tower. Just keep it away from places your vehicles travel! Towers elsewhere need similar

Next, towers require regular inspections. Any towers that are located remotely from your staffed locations should be visited at least once a month for visual inspection, the same as most of you do for substation inspections. Even the towers at your office locations should be inspected specifically, since people become used to common, everyday surroundings and may not notice specific items that need attention. The logical goal of these visual inspections is to spot potential issues and schedule appropriate fixes before they cause serious problems. 

In addition to monthly visual inspections done by your own people, all towers should be inspected on a periodic basis by a competent, trained  inspector. The frequency of these professional inspections, as recommended by experts, varies from doing them annually to at least every 3 years for guyed towers and at least every 5 years for self-supporting towers. A major factor in determining the appropriate frequency is the prevailing climate and the soil conditions at the towers. In areas where severe winter weather is common, damage from freezing and thawing can quickly split supporting structures, making annual inspections very important. In areas where soil conditions promote settling or shifting, off-plumb towers and sagging guys are common problems and may require annual inspections also. 

The regular clearing of weep holes is also critical to tower longevity. Insects, leaves, and other debris can prevent the weep holes from draining properly, and retained water can freeze and expand with tremendous force. Poor drainage can also promote rapid corrosion. Failure to clear them can result in premature structural failure as a result of water retention and freezing.

Of course, there may be times when a professional inspection would be appropriate earlier than the routine schedule calls for. Any problems your own people spot while doing their monthly inspections might require an immediate professional inspection to assess how severe the problem is. For those of you in coastal areas that have the unfortunate combination of generally sandy soil and exposure to high winds and hurricanes probably should have your tower(s) professionally inspected as soon as possible after a major storm. 

Unlike monthly visual inspections, a professional technical inspection process goes well beyond a quick once over, or an “eyeballing” of the tower. Senior managers should carefully consider whether to attempt inspections with their own employees or to hire a local expert. It is important that only trained personnel who are experienced in climbing, inspections, and tower adjustments should perform this work. As an example of the issues to be reviewed in an inspection, here is an excerpt from the outline of the inspection points as recommended by the Telecommunications Industries Association (TIA): 

1. Tower Conditions (both guyed and self-supporting)
1. Members
1. Bent members (legs and lacing)
2. Loose members
3. Missing members
4. Climbing facilities, platforms, catwalks -- all secure
5. Loose and/or missing bolts
2. Finish
1. Paint and/or galvanizing condition
2. Rust and/or corrosion conditions
3. FAA or ICAO color marking conditions
4. Water collection in members (to be remedied, e.g., unplug drain holes, etc.)
3. Lighting
1. Conduit, junction boxes, and fasteners weather tight and secure
2. Drains and vents open
3. Wiring condition
4. Controllers functioning
1. Flasher
2. Photo control
3. Alarms
5. Light lenses
6. Bulb condition (Option: change all bulbs at one time)
4. Grounding
1. Connections checked and secure
2. Corrosion observed and remedied
3. Lightning protection secure (as required)
5. Tower Base Foundation
1. Ground Conditions
1. Settlements or movements
2. Erosion
3. Site condition (standing water, drainage, trees, etc.)
2. Base condition
1. Nuts and lock nuts tight
2. Grout condition
3. Concrete Condition
1. Cracking, spalling, or splitting
2. Chipped or broken concrete
3. Honeycombing
4. Low spots to collect moisture
5. Anchor-bolt corrosion
6. Tower Assembly Profile
7. Antennas and feed-lines (each)
1. Frequency
2. Elevation
3. Type
4. Size
5. Manufacturer
6. Connectors and hangers
1. Optional appurtenances (walkways, platforms, sensors, floodlights, etc.)
1. Elevation
2. Arrangement
3. Drawings or sketches
2. Foundation and anchors
1. Plan
2. Elevations
3. Size
4. Depths
5. Soil type (if known or necessary)
8. Tower Alignment, Tower Plumb and Twist (See 6.1.2.1 and 6.1.2.2)
9. Insulators (As Required)
1. Insulator Condition
1. Cracking and chipping
2. Cleanliness of insulators
3. Spark gaps set properly
4. Isolation transformer condition
5. Bolts and connections secure
6. Manufacturer type and part numbers for future replacements

2. Guyed Towers

1. Anchors
1. Settlement, movement or earth cracks
2. Backfill heaped over concrete for water shedding
3. Anchor rod condition below earth (Maintain required structural capacity of anchor during exploration, inspection and maintenance. Attachment to temporary anchorage may be required.)
4. Corrosion control measures (galvanizing, coatings, concrete encasement, cathodic protection systems, etc., refer to Annex J.)
5. Grounding
6. Anchor head clear of earth
2. Tower Guys
1. Strand
1. Type (lx7 EHS, lx19 bridge Strand, etc.)
2. Size
3. Breaking strength
4. Elevation
5. Condition (corrosion, breaks, nicks, kinks, etc.)
2. Guy Hardware
3. Elements
1. Bent, broken, cracked or bullet damaged
2. Loose
3. Missing
4. Loose and/or missing fasteners
4. Corrosion condition
5. Radomes and/or cover conditions
3. Feed Lines (waveguide, coax, etc.)
1. Hangers and supports
1. Condition
2. Quality
3. Corrosion condition
2. Flanges and seals (check integrity)
3. Line Condition
1. Dents
2. Abrasions
3. Holes
4. Leaks
5. Jacket condition
4. Grounds
1. Top ground strap bonded both ends
2. Bottom ground strap bonded both ends
5. Feed-line support (ice shields)
1. Properly attached
2. Loose and/or missing bolts
3. Members straight and undamaged

 TOWER LEG VERTICAL ALIGNMENT 

1. Check with transit. Two transit setups are required. Line transit parallel to one face and center on leg. Second setup should be at 90° on same leg. Show on sketch below the locations used for transit setup. Indicate North.

Approximate wind speed during measurements mph.

Measure Guy Initial Tensions. 

As you can see, the inspection outlined above is not a “walk-by” procedure! A through inspection of this type this should be regularly performed, a minimum of every 3-5 years per the experts, on any towers you own, in order to ensure that these structures will not present you with an unexpected reason to call your insurance provider.