At 02:26 PM 10/9/2006, AA6DX - Mark wrote:
>Greg et al ..
>Sounds way over done, to me .. we spend a lot of time on TT about concrete
>and towers, my question to the group is who has some REAL stories about
>tower failure due to concrete base errors? I don't personally know of any,
>but they must exist, or there would not be all this discussion on the
>subject. 73
Actually, there may not be all that many. I woult think that base
failure would be pretty unusual. You see pictures of towers with the
base just sitting on the dirt, for instance. And, there's just not
that many failures of any kind. I would guess maybe less than a
dozen per year with "big" effects (collapse, etc.). Probably a lot
more of the "bent strut" or "stuck crankup" sort of thing, and even
more "broken antenna" failures ("if it didn't come down last windy
season, it wasn't big enough!"). Some of those might be "base
failure" related: the reason the crankup won't go up or down smoothly
is that it's not vertical anymore.
The chat on the list is probably more in keeping with
a) keeping the local building officials happy
b) As long as I'm going to all the trouble to do it, I might as well
do it right, and ask lots of questions
c) I want to do something other than what's in the plans. Is what I'm
thinking even reasonable?
There's also a fair amount of traffic not so much on the design of
the base, but more on construction techniques (hand dig vs backhoe;
wheelbarrow vs pump truck vs buggy; rebar handling), etc. I suspect
most folks on the list aren't in the construction trades, so there's
a lot of "standard operating procedure" that would be unfamiliar or
assumed in the drawings. I know I'm learning a lot by watching the
hardscape guys doing my yard, particularly the masons doing the
flagstones and ledger facings. {Mind you, the primary thing I'm
learning is that I'm not going to do it myself, ever, unless there's
some really good reason. They do it faster, better, and with less
effort than I ever could. }
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|