Tag: damage

Update On the “Uncle Wobbly” Tower

We have been monitoring the status of a tower in a community south of Opelika which was supposed to have been taken down a while back. This

The curving of the tower in this photo is not camera distortion. It really is bowing and bending as bad as it looks.

tower has been (not so affectionately) nicknamed “Uncle Wobbly” because you can watch it precariously sway with the wind. It is also bowing and leaning very badly. All of this is because it only has three of the original guy wires still intact, and only two of those are actually supporting the tower. The guy wires are old and extremely rusted and six of the original nine guys have broken. Two guys remain on the back side of the tower at approximately the 60′ level, and one on the front at approximately the  80′ level.

The guy wire at the front (from the vantage point of the road — and utility lines — is the only top guy remaining, and it’s slack. That “slackness” is actually a good thing in this instance, because with the other two top guys missing, one can venture a pretty accurate guess as to what would happen if someone put much tension on that top/front guy.

Two of the three front guys have been broken for quite some time, and you can see the extremely rusted condition of the guy wires in this photo.

This tower is only about 50 feet from the utility lines running parallel to the road. That has created a seriously hazardous situation. The tower is 110′ tall (including appurtanances.) Obviously, if it falls in the direction it is leaning, there is a high likelihood it will fall across the utility lines and the roadway. This decommissioned tower was slated for dismantling in the Fall of 2017 according to the tower owners, but that work has not yet been done.

We will not be the least bit surprised to get a call at any moment letting us know the tower has completely failed. We also would not be surprised to hear that it damaged the utility lines (and quite possibly the utility pole nearest the tower) and caused interruption of utilities for a lot of folks in the area.

Forensic Inspection of Damaged Tower

Earlier this week, we had to go and do a little forensic inspection of a tower which was severely damaged by an electric company bushhog operator who was cutting and clearing the right-of-way. Here are a few photos of the damage and how the tower failed as a result of the incident.

This is how the tower looked when the owner went to investigate the loss of signal from his equipment.
This guy wire anchor and spreader had been struck by a utility company “bushhog.” It went unreported by the operator of the bush hog. The tower owner could tell that the site and utility right-of-way had just been cut, and he and the deputy finally made contact with the equipment operator who admitted he had struck the guy hardware, causing the tower collapse.
Top guy, which had been pulled with enough force to pull the upper part of the tower over.
One of the two tower legs which literally bent and folder over, in a hinge-like fashion.
The second of the two tower legs which bent and folder over.
This tower leg was opposite the side of the force of the top, front guy wire being pulled by the bushhog. As can be seen, the bolts remained intact in the mating leg, and the force was sufficient to cause the bolts to rip through the galvanized metal tower leg.