Arrow points to location of the new cell tower from our picnic spot on huckleberry hill
Tower location on the "knob" in the background is on Twin Falls' property
A summer wine and cheese party in the foreground.
L-R Shannon, Margo, Grier and Dave.
View completed tower shot from this location

 

Tower location ready for some blasting, major regrading  and a big hole to anchor the tower

Aerial map of Twin Falls with arrow to the new tower location

  
Below is a chronological set of photos showing the progress of the construction of the new tower

Here's one of the cell radios
Note the huge heat fins
 

The crane quickly moves the pieces to the top
 

Cable trays and wiring runs prepared for final installation

Moving into high gear
Sector antenna mounted to section of galvanized pipe

Crane takes it to the top!
The system will cover all three cell phone bands:
700/760Mhz
1900/2100Mhz
850Mhz (5G)
More about cell systems

Utilities ditch from the power meters to the equipment shelter.
Conduits contain 220Volt power and the Ziply fiber to downtown.
Red tape is to warn anyone digging in the future that there's a pipe about to be hit!
 

Techs installing the three sector antenna mounts.
The plan calls for twelve antennas and nine cell radios, all ATT

 

Inside the equipment shelter
Here's the 48 Volt standby battery set on the right.
All the cell radio equipment is at the top of the monopole
...and it all runs on 48 Volts DC
 

Networking equipment on the left inside the equipment shelter
It's mainly a big "fiber switch".
Fiber to the radios is run up the inside of the monopole along with a lot of DC power.
A couple of the radios have "dual" fiber ports for the 5G expansion.

Installation of the equipment shelter
Contractor had to get a ground penetrating radar to locate the rebar just under the concrete. Note the chalklines where the rebar is sunk.
View a shot of the enormous rebar that was cast into this pad

 

Completed installation of the equipment shelter and standby generator.
Note the "feet" to put the shelter a foot off the pad.

10/28 Antenna crew begins installing the antenna mounts.
That's Duke the lead man for the final install.
Note the galvanized brackets at the base waiting to be hauled up and the foot pegs leading up into the branches. Cable in upper center is an OSHA safety device to prevent  falls. That big spool is power wire to run inside the pole to the top

Climbers had to remove some branches
Sector antenna brackets being bolted to the 150' monopole.
 

Two guys and a helper wiring a new dedicated transformer
 

10/6/21 Complete less radios and antennas

The County PUD decided they needed a separate transformer to supply the cell tower.
Here's the 3.8 kV power feeder junction in this vault. New feeder wire on the LH side ready to be connected.
 

PUD electrician wiring the power co. side of the four meters
Note the 450W Solar Panel array and its control box. This was to power the fiber transceivers for testing before the county power was available

Final assembly 9/2/21
Now for the electronics and antennas
 

First section up and crane ready to stack the next section

Shot looking south as the mobile crane sets up for the next section
View engineering drawing of 150' monopole
 

Late afternoon work continues
 

Hold-down bolts tightened twice

Security Fencing  installation
 

Looking up from bottom
View wind loading specifications
 

Attaching the limbs and lifting one of the sections to move in place for the crane lift
 

Nice shot down the inside
 

Crate of limbs ready to mount on the tower

44 Galvanized Bolts, each numbered!
 

Ziply Fiber splice truck on Jordan road
Connecting the two fiber ends together, one from downtown and one going up to the tower location

Truck arrives from Ehresman Engineering in South Dakota
 

Using a couple of heavy machines to maneuver the section through the gate

Moving the base gingerly to set it by the edge of the driveway
 

Second truck arrives a few minutes later

Middle section pick up and the guys carefully orchestrate the turn into the driveway

Getting ready to move everything to the top
 

July 7th
 Waiting for the Tower to arrive in August
This looks like some kind of an experiment to see if there's any solar power up here
 

Note the  temporary box on a pallet with ~450watts of panels connected

Pad Complete 6/14
Ground wires coming across the pad from a  perimeter of 2/0 welding wire

Some utilities installed and primary power for four cell providers

A set of new power panels, all underground power
 

Finished, dried and set

Taking a photo of the perfectly set ring of anchor bolts
 

Unbelievable!

Pour complete! June 11, 2021
 

This was an all-day job!
Note the plastic over the tops of the circle of bolts to make sure they stay clean

So much rebar that it had to  be tamped down with a tool from above
 

Welded pieces out the sides and bent over held the forms together
 

Pumper working its way around the huge form, it took all day.
We calculated 177 Yds of concrete
 

So many concrete trucks that there had to be a guy at the bottom with a walkie talkie!

Ready for the concrete!
 

Stacked 40' pieces all tied together

This thing is going to be one strong base
 

Site is really coming together
Rebar will be cross stacked to just below the ring of bolts

Ironworkers preparing to tie in more rebar

Circle of bolts will securely hold base of tower
Level shows it "on the money"
 

Hole is dug in middle and site leveled
Forms begin to be installed
 

Two trucks carried 40ft log rebar up the hill

Forms being positioned.
Estimate is 250 yards of concrete to fill this big box!

Site is leveled and rough hole is dug in the middle

Contractor scooping out the rubble and getting set for the concrete forms

After dynamite charges were set off...
A big pile of rubble

T

This mammoth loader was used to haul the blast rock away

 A close look at the pile of rubble reveals all that is left,  primacord that was run to the individual charges. ...More on primacord
 

Close-up of a blasting cap laying in the rubble

Individual holes for  dynamite after the first blast
 

Here each hole is marked by the explosives technician for a precision dynamite blast sequence
 

Each hole is readied for a small high explosive charge and "funnel" to prevent any dust or dirt to fill the bottom

 

Holes needed to be drilled for dynamite charges
Here's a Furukawa 900ES rock driller
By automatically controlling the impact force, feed force, rotation force , the drill continuously adapts to the changing rock conditions, increasing drilling performance and the life of drill tools

Looking towards the business end, this is quite a machine
Rock drilling and blasting company McCallum rock
 

After the initial leveling of the site

A series of holes were drilled
Plan was to blast level and then dig another a 10'x10' hole and fill it with rebar and concrete to serve as a base for the tower and the associated equipment including a propane powered AC generator
 

Fiber conduit complete: 1.1 miles from top of mountain to Jordan Road
More about how fiber works

This was quite an undertaking

Fiber conduit installed on lower road
Utilities marked. They only hit one waterline.

Twin Falls residents took advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to run their own fiber in the ditch.

Here's Anastasia running a stretch before the contractors filled it in
 View photo of first test sitting next to the road with a laptop!

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11/14/21