Documented tower failures
Documented tower failures
(OP)
Can anyone point to websites or other sources for documented cases of tower failures(radio station and/or cell towers)? My primary interest is wind event related, but am interested in whatever is out there. I occasionally have to explain to clients and zoning officials that towers do not just "roll over" when they collapse, and would like to provide real world cases to help explain. Luckily tower failures are few and far between, so I honestly do not know how much "bad" history is out there.






RE: Documented tower failures
Maybe try looking around their site (as I wasn't interested in this area myself, I didn't make a note of the details).
Hope this helps. I apologize if it's a dead end.
Brad
RE: Documented tower failures
In 1965 the KNX radio tower in Hawthorne, California (Los Angeles) went down in the parking lot of the radio station. It fell when teenagers cut through one of the guys with a hacksaw!!! When the guy broke, the tower jumped out of it's base socket , cleared the building, and landed in the parking lot about 100 feet from where it started. As it fell, it coiled about itself ( no major section fell very far away from the initial point of impact)clearing the buildng completely.
After we cleaned up the mess, and after the insurance investigations, the original 500 foot tower, along with a companion 400+ foot tower was rebuilt. This was done in July ,1966 by the Pacific Crane & Rigging Co. along with members of the Ironworkers Local 433 of Los Angeles (including myself).
The amazing thing to me was the way it fell, in a coil straight down. That and the fact that the kid that cut the cable wasn't killed.
PC&R are out of buisness now, but the company that absorbed them (MAACO) may still have the photos, it was quite spectacular.
Rod
RE: Documented tower failures
RE: Documented tower failures
If you are interested, the towers may be seen in the original movie, "Gone in 60 Seconds" (1974) as the automobile agency in the movie is just across the street.
Rod