Today’s task is to set the first 60 feet upright and start stacking the remaining sections. A crane was brought on site to lift the lower tower sections into place.
We left off yesterday with the lower three sections (60 feet) assembled on the ground and positioned near the tower base.
A “gin pole” will be used to attach the remaining top sections once the bottom three sections are vertical. This sliding mechanism (red) allows the gin pole to easily be moved up the tower as the new sections are stacked.
A survey transit is set up to check the level of the bolts at the tower base before the lower sections are stacked on top of them…
The crane will be placed here…Four large pads are set on the ground to better distribute the weight of the crane’s outriggers on the relatively soft ground…
The survey transit is looking at the thin white pole held here by one of the tower crew members…This process is used to ensure the nuts that the tower base will set on are as level as possible. There are 24 nuts that all need to be leveled.
The crane arrives on site. This crane is capable of lifting 60 tons. Far more than we will need for this job but good to have more than enough capacity…
The outriggers are extended and will soon be sitting on top of the pads previously placed on the ground…
Cleaning the crane windows…Safety first! An interesting fact…Wyoming state law REQUIRES that a certified rigger be on site for every crane lift. Probably a good idea…
Extending the crane boom…
All rigged up and ready to lift the tower off the ground…
Going up…
Almost there…
One final maneuver of the crane to get things in place…
Positioning the flanges over the bolts on the base piers…Hope they fit…
Lining up one of the tower legs with the bolts…
They fit!
All three tower legs lined up with the piers…Now to secure the nuts to the bolts…
The first 60 feet of tower are now vertical along with the gin pole for hoisting the remaining 85 feet…The rigger releases the harness the crane is holding…
Un-rigging the crane from the tower…
Time for the tower crew to start rigging so they can complete the remaining 85 feet…This trailer holds a large winch for hoisting additional hardware up the tower.
Every single inch of cable wound on this winch is inspected for safety. A frayed steel cable could cause a devistating failure resulting in property damage, injury or death!
Going up…My crew climbs the tower for the first time since it went vertical…
The first of the top tower sections is hoisted into place…
Bolting the first top section into place…
One top section down, five to go…
Second top section, going up…
Two top sections up, four to go…
Moving the gin pole slider…This process will now need to be repeated for each new section put up the tower since the section lengths at this height are about half the length of the gin pole…
The gin pole is now hoisted up through the slider to provide support for the tower section that will be hoisted next…
Next to go up the tower is the third top section…
Three of six done!
Four of six…
Now it’s starting to look like a tower…Only two sections left to go up!
Top section number five going up the tower…
Only one more section left to go! We’re losing daylight though so that will have to wait until tomorrow.
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