Category Archives: tower

Thursday June 30th’s Path

by in Baltimore, Fort McHenry, Front Range Tower, Hay, Inner Harbor, Lehigh Cement, Maryland, morning commute, Navigational Beacons, sepia, ship, sun, sunrise, tower | Leave a comment
Frederick County,Maryland
On the road to work.

A fresh cut field
A roll in the hay.

Fort McHenry Front Range Tower
Fort McHenry Navigational Beacon needs some work.

Soon to be replaced
This green light will be replaced, new steel added and some new electrical wiring installed to better serve the ships entering Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
Lehigh Cement Baltimore Distribution Terminal
Across the harbor from Fort McHenry, Lehigh Cement loads a ship with grey cement headed for parts unknown.

Monopole Tower Stack – Baltimore, Maryland

by in Baltimore, cell tower, Climbers, communications, cranes, monopole, rigging, tower | Leave a comment
The 1st section arrives on site.

Anchor bolts in the caisson

Crane lifts the 1st section off the truck.
1st section rigged & lifted into position.

Holes are carefully lined up with the anchor bolts.

Nuts are tightened with a special wrench and a sledge hammer.
Smoothing things out for a better fit.

Climber goes up to de-rig the crane and await the next section.

Removing the rigging.
Next section lifted for inspection.

Climber awaits the next one.

Perfect fit!
Storm clouds, then BOOM!
Site supervisor shuts the job down for everyone’s safety.
Storm passes and the jib is put on the crane for greater reach.
Two sections up and two to go.
3rd section guided into place.
Top section’s 6 foot lightning rod, which we really don’t need today.
Top section rigged and inspected.

The sun marks the spot.

Waiting for the last piece to fall into place.
Almost there…

New tower is up and a climber in a man basket is sent up to take measurements and snap some pictures.

Measuring tape reads an inch over 170 feet.

Baltimore’s newest monopole!

West Virginia Tower Construction – Friday April 15th 2011

by in Berkeley Springs, Climbers, construction, cranes, ropes, tower, West Virginia | Leave a comment
Sunrise in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

Today we will stack this tower with a crane.

When completed, this tower will stand 300 feet tall.
Our climbers getting their climbing gear ready for the day’s climb.

Ropes have to be climbed up for rescue purposes as well as easy access.

Tower beacon to warn approaching aircraft.

Checking the bolts.
Our two crane operators

The very top section

The crane telescopes out while bolts are checked and rechecked.
Stefan rigs the descent rope along with a backup safety rope.

Jon tightens up some bolts.

Every bolt on the tower is checked.
Ray on the balance beam.

Stefan does a controlled descent on the ropes.

Uh oh.Crane problems.
Working to find the problem.

Gene and Jon finishing out the top section.

Gene waiting on the crane.
It takes a crane to fix a crane.

Here’s your problem.

Waiting…
Waiting…

The crane hook hangs empty. The job gets called off for the day because of the crane.We’ll get a new crane on Monday and hopefully finish this tower and move on to the next one.