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aom

aom

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I know this one is another design but we have been asked to provide a budget price to erect 4 or 5 20 - 25 meter high access towers. The main difference is it's for a wild life survey so they will be built in a heavily forested area on the top of a mountain(superscaff will love this he thinks that's all we have:amuse:) and will be up for around 2 years. It's a new one on me I have to be honest and am assuming ground conditions will be suspect so kentledge will be out of the question which leaves only guy wire which I haven't seen in years.

Has anyone done anything similar or are we really getting more and more Highland league?:embarrest:
 
Think you're on your own mate lol could be worth looking into duck bills or similar but its going to depend on what sort of winds you get up there and how deep you'll have to go to get a good fix.

How come being up a mountain isn't high enough for them?
 
It's top secret Nick, but between you and me it's for a wind farm to see how much wildlife is in the area and what impact it will have on them if it's filled up with turbines. I didn't ask why but I assumed it was because they would have to see over the tree's.
 
You'd need a huge base to support towers that high,wires are still used,notably on the grid jobs over roads,but like you say,it's a designers headscratch and good luck to them,i think the auld twitchers will do more than twitch when they see the costs involved,mind you it'll give the safelynx a work out lol
 
haha yes Nick will want to know how they perform up there for sure. I have seen a few of the road crossing jobs but they look to me like they are all buttressed these days rather than wires. What would your best guess at footprint size for a job like that? The guy did ask me but he caught me cold and I just said I would need to look into it. As for costs, it appears at this stage they don't have a lot of option and as it's up a mountain with little or no road yet the material will have to be choppered to the site which could make my invoice look like very good value for money.:cool:
 
Off the top of my head for a 25m high, unsupported (for now) tower the base to height ratio works out as whopping! lol

In all seriousness I would hate to even hazard a guess because there is going to be so many factors that without a proper survey anything i say will be way off the mark.

Might be worth your time pinging one of the more experienced designers a PM.
 
Mmm,would'nt like to guess at the footprint aom,not on here anyway lol,how far apart are they?could they support each other with the lower side buttressed?either way they sound like their gonna be big,with the big invoice and rental to follow;)
 
Pussies.:D

---------- Post added at 01:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:35 PM ----------

No rental BF, at a 2 year deal I told them to buy the gear chopper it to the hill and if we build it the fekin birds will come and crap all over it.
 
aom, Just ask a good joiner to erect a strong tree house then you can build a truss out through a window....:nuts::nuts::nuts:
 
Or blag it as a permanent structure and make it someone elses problem.
 
2 years Aom , make sure you use all the old rubbish kit in the yard :D

cant you just tie around a few trees to tie it ;)
 
aom said:
It's a new one on me I have to be honest and am assuming ground conditions will be suspect so kentledge will be out of the question which leaves only guy wire which I haven't seen in years.

Has anyone done anything similar or are we really getting more and more Highland league?:embarrest:
Click to expand...

.
I'm sure I saw a picture on here where someone had tied the scaffold to a tree on a swivel, couldn't you do the same aom :D
 
AOM, not knowing the state of the ground or slope but you might want to try this. Erect a birdcage lets say for discussion 6m x 6m x 12m. When you base out Include your tower centraly then use the birdcage as your butress all round the four sides of the tower. So lets say you use 16 standards four or six of which are in the centre use for your tower. The remaining use as your butress scaffold, Your then tied in all round. Mind you you might need a Chinook to get the gear up !!!lol. good luck
 
Thank God for the UAE scaffs Doodle, tie in to tree's.:eek: Does anyone know the loading capacity of a Sitka Spruce? :laugh:

I was thinking the same thing Doodle but was just trying to get a handle on a best guess for footprint so I could give these guys a budget price to work with. I saw it as you say but maybe a bit bigger half way up anyway and reducing to a top boarded lift of 13ft square rakered back down to the buttress.

Now you come to mention it Ian I do remember seeing a picture like that.
 
Nick-CDS said:
Or blag it as a permanent structure and make it someone elses problem.
Click to expand...

Aom, yep mate was only giving you ideas. The base could be well bigger but you got my drift thats main thing.
 
Yeah I have seen a few strange ones Phil and if I'm honest built a few strange ones myself.:noworry:
 
Sounds silly, but why not build a concrete base just a bit bigger then your Towers and physically tie each Tower in with Hilti/Band n Plate and Chem-resin Excalibur bolts??

Add extra Kentledge later, if needed?

Would that be strong enough or be too expensive?
Just another idea. ;)
 
AOM,

The easiest solution is definitely guy wires. Its relatively straight forward really.. the erection period and location will mean you have to design for pretty high gust speeds but otherwise, it should be OK.

Duck-bills are definitely a good idea, those, D shackle, turn buckle to fix your guy at the base, get the wires with a loop formed on the end using 3 or 4 bulldog grips and fix that round the node of the tower. The nodes wold need strengthening up etc but thats how you'd do it.

We've done something similar recently for a free-fall 'experience' event where people drop on an inertia wheel from like 50m up...

If you want to chat through it, give me a call on our office number tomorrow afternoon - numbers on the website (link below).

Good luck. Ben.
 
Aye the auld duck bills,now there's something you dont see everyday,you'd need clean ground to get the required depth though,mmm,pity there's no giant redwoods about lol
 
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