Day 2: The forklift arrives on site and it’s time to start moving tower sections around for assembly.

RSC from Scottsbluff, NE once again provides a forklift for the job.  It has started to snow pretty heavily but the crew doesn’t even bat an eye at working in these conditions.

First step, finish assembling the bottom section.  This section consists of three legs and a number of cross-members that must be bolted together.  The remaining sections are all welded together as single pieces.  The first two legs were pre-assembled on the ground but getting the third leg into position for assembly is much easier with the forklift.

Assembly in progress…You can see the top few cross-members bolted into place while the forklift provides support for the 3rd leg.

The bottom section is complete…Now to place it over by the tower base.  Two additional sections will be attached to this one in preparation for the crane to hoist the lower 60 feet of tower onto the base tomorrow.

The bottom section of tower is placed near the tower base…

Picking up the second section of tower…It will soon join the first section over by the tower base.

The first and second tower sections are in place…Now to join them together…

A comealong is used to bring the two sections closer together…

The first and second sections have been successfully bolted together.  That’s 3/4″ hardware bolting these solid steel tower members together!  No hollow legs here…

The first two sections are complete…Now it’s starting to look like a tower!

Preparing to pick up the third section of tower with the forklift…

The third section of tower is placed near the first two over by the tower base…

Once again the two sections are positioned and joined together…

While the first 60 feet of tower will be pre-assembled on the ground and hoisted with a crane, the remaining 80 feet will be put into place using a temporary tower section known as a “Gin Pole”.  This will support the additional sections being added to the existing vertical tower sections as things are being bolted into place.

Securing the gin pole to the lower tower sections…

The gin pole attached to the lower tower sections…

An overview of the activity on site as seen from the tower base…By tomorrow the tower sections should be joining the tower base.  It will be a nerve wracking time hoping that the bolts mate up properly with the flanges on the tower…

This trailer holds a large winch that will be used for hoisting the remaining tower sections and the antenna…

A large reel of steel cable is hoisted into position for rigging the winch to the tower…It’s starting to get dark now…Enough work for one day!