In February of ’09 we got a call from a new client. Aero Solutions was doing structural up-grades to a mobile phone tower in Corpus Christi. They had to increase the foundation size of the tower in order to accommodate the additional steel they needed to add to the structure. They asked T-Rex to come out and do the excavation at the site to insure that no fiber optic lines got cut while digging in or around the existing foundation. Todd Bothwell of Aero Solutions finds vacuum excavation cost comparable to hand digging or getting an excavator on site. Furthermore, Todd stresses Aero Solutions never waivers on safety.
Todd hired us to safely and non-destructively use vacuum excavation (or hydro excavation) to remove the soil for the expansion of the foundation. Vacuum excavation is a process by which air or water is used to dig up the soil and a high air flow vacuum sucks up the debris. Vacuum excavation is completely safe and does not damage fiber optics, electrical, or other utilities known or unknown. In the wrong application, mechanical digging by backhoe or even a shovel can do serious damage to buried utilities.
Initially, it was a small job and I didn’t think much about it. About six weeks later Aero Solutions called again with another site in Louisiana to do the same type of job. This time I took notice and within the next few days I read a story by Dwight Silverman in the Houston Chronicle about AT&T wireless phone coverage getting knocked out twice in one day at the same jobsite due to what sounds like mechanical excavation.
After reading Dwight’s article I connected the dots and sounded the alarm… I had to know more! Wireless data communication has become an integral part of our daily lives. I mentioned to my wife that when our children are old enough to get a mobile phone, chances are they will maintain that phone number for their entire lives. People will allow their water to be turned off before they shut down their cell phones. Why will they do this? Communication is king in business, our sense of personal safety (cellular PCS sites have been integrated in 911 services and national security), and now entertainment (ask your kids if they have a Facebook or Twitter application on their phones). It’s all wireless and it has become as common as water within our culture. WIRELESS IS A UTILITY.
A little research taught me that the premier wireless industry organization is the National Association of Tower Erectors and it turned out they were having their annual conference in Nashville in just a few weeks. With the help of Carol Coughlin (head of membership for NATE) and input from Jim Tracey of Legacy Communications I decided to see if our two industries could help each other out.
That leads me here… typing from my room in the beautiful Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. In the last three days I have learned a great deal about the wireless tower business. This is fantastic niche industry full of die hard tough guys who assemble and re-modify towers seemingly overnight in utterly adverse conditions thousands of feet off the ground. I sat through the best safety presentation of my life by Craig Synder and Todd Thorin of Sioux Falls Tower and Communications and learned about how they created a culture of safety and what it took to get them to that point. I have learned about the future of tower erection as it applies to the rural wireless expansion in the 2009 stimulus bill and of the detriment the delay of HD broadcast caused to the industry. I also learned about the dangers of guy anchor and rod corrosion from David Davies of Electronics Research, Inc. and discussed possibilities about how vacuum excavation may be able to simplify the inspection process of guy anchors.
In short… it has been fascinating and I am hopeful that T-Rex will grow with this amazing industry. I am grateful to all of those I met on this trip and what they taught me.
What I leave this conference with are 3 intentions:
- One, take what I learned this week and quickly test an idea I have around a safe, fast, non-destructive way of inspecting guy wires and anchors and report back the results.
- Two, I will put together literature specific to tower erection and re-modification to educate the industry on ways that T-Rex can make the jobs safer and easier.
- Third, I will serve this industry and those who work in it with integrity and I will answer all questions honestly and responsibly.
Thank you again to everyone who gave me their time and interest. I will be posting results here, please check back soon.
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