KHCC-FM Tower Construction

                                           (last updated October 30)  

Here are photos of the project with the most recent at the top.

October 30 - Foundations are complete as of October 19th. and the installation crew has left. We are told that the tower steel will arrive November 2 (Friday) with the installation crew. It's estimated now that the tower should start upwards in mid November.

The first order of business is to clear the site for tower assembly, build a few more roads for rolling out guy wires, and assemble tower sections.



Finishing the top of the last anchor block.

The last anchor block with the helix rods is
poured late in the day.

The concrete trucks had a 700' wooden road
over which they had to back to the concrete
pump truck. The trucks are 8' wide and the
road is 8' wide. They all made it!

Once the helixes were installed, the concrete
block's cage was constructed. The helix rods have
huge square "washers" inside the block to
grip the concrete. We also electrically connected
the rods with large cables to magnesium anodes
external to the block. This creates a large
battery that corrodes the magnesium and transfers
its metal to the rods. We hope in 50 years the
helixes will actually be larger due to corrosion
rather than smaller!



Oct 16: The driving of helixes continues.

How is 10,000 ft/lb of torque measured?
They told me there is a correlation between
the hydraulic fluid pressure on the drill head
and the torque. They were looking for 1600psi
on this meter. It was reached with about 34 feet
of helix driven in the ground.

Here is a helix disappearing into the sand.

The men were careful to drive the helixes at
exactly the correct angles.

Oct 15: The southmost anchor could not be
built with a large block of concrete as water
was only 4 feet below the surface. Plan B
called for screwing large helixes (screws) into
the ground until the screwing force measured
about 10,000 ft/lbs of torque. Four of these rods,
encased in grout were drilled in at angles and
connected in a small concrete block to the
anchor rod. Here we see the crew starting
this procedure.

In the middle of all this, we moved our new
HD Radio transmitter from the college's
storage to the new building. It was helpful to
have a massive fork lift and husky men to help.

Jack is shaping and smoothing the concrete neck.

Here we are pouring another anchor rod neck.
The anchor rods fasten deep inside the anchor
blocks and the rods are encased in concrete
forming a neck to control corrosion.

All cement trucks had to roll over wooden roads
or sink immediately in the sand.

The process continues.

Forms are stripped and we have the first finished anchor.

Welding up the anchor.

The inner anchors had the concrete blocks redesigned and this required shortening the anchor rods. The HCC welding department supplied highly skilled and certified assistance in performing this critical task.

This 11' spool contains 1250' of 4" heliax transmission line that carries our signal from the transmitter in the building to the antenna at the top of the tower.

The anchor collar is poured.

The guy anchor rod is surrounded by a steel form.

This is a "snubber" anchor which is part of a secondary cable system that dampens oscillations in the guy cables under icing or windy conditions.

It always takes several supervisors :)

Another anchor being poured.

After covering the block, all that remains is the anchor rod surrounded by rebar. This will be formed next and surrounded by concrete to combat corrosion.

Sep 7 - The next morning. Removing the forms.

Sep 6 - Done. Because this is all backfilled, nobody cares to smooth off the surface :) The anchor rod protudes from the block on the left. It also will be surrounded by a collar of concrete to just above ground level.

Filling the forms.

Pouring begins. This pump is run by one guy with a remote control box tied around his waist. Nobody has to shovel or skree concrete.

Sep 7 - The concrete pump truck has arrived to pour the first anchor.

"Matted" roads are laid out to the various anchor sites for the cement trucks. Trucks bury themselves to the axles easily in the sand.

Dropping the huge rebar cage into the pit.

Because of the sand, the block had to be formed up. That's the rebar cage being manuevered into position.


Sep 5 - Digging one of the outer anchor holes. It's 12 feet deep. The anchor block will measure 30 feet long, 7 feet wide and 5 feet tall. This is about 39 yards of concrete weighing around 80 tons.




Walls are almost complete.

This is the view out the transmitter room door to the tower base (behind the scaffolding).

Here's the brick work after one day of block laying.




These guys built 4' walls around the building perimeter in 3 hours. Now that was amazing.

July 27 - Brickwork begins.

July 18 - Foundations and floors are poured. Doors are set. Ric is reviewing ground connections with the electricians. There is a halo ground of heavy wire surrounding the building and brazed to nine ground rods. Sand is a lousy ground connection.

Foundation rebar detail.

July 9 - Bill Atkinson of A&A locates the building foundations.


July 16 - Three phase electrcial service is extended to the site about one mile. Even Westar had a heavy truck sink into the sand. It required a bulldozer to fish it out. :)


July 3 - Stymied. The tower company now has to regroup and solve a few problems. This is the first excavated anchor foundation hole. It's 14 feet deep and as big as a basement. Over a week or so, it filled with water to this level, about six feet below ground level. On the left is the rebar cage that is placed at the bottom of the hole as part of the anchor. Two problems need solutions: steady ground water seepage and sandy soil to the foundation sites that will mire concrete trucks.


June 28 - The tower base is done. Excavation is beginning on the anchor foundations. These huge blocks of concrete, approximately 28' long, 10' wide and 5' tall are buried 12' in the ground. The sandy soil with a high water table has complicated the installation. It's a good thing there are no cattle on the land this summer as we'd find them stacked in our holes. We also face problems in getting the concrete out to the anchors. Heavily laden concrete trucks just don't drive well across sandy ground. So the foundation company is considering its options. Work should now resume after the July 4th holiday.

June 20 - Checking the anchor survey points from the new base.


June 19 - The base pier being poured.


June 18 - The tower base pad is poured with the base pier rebar still exposed.


June 14 - Rebar is laid for the 21' square tower base pad.


June 12 - Digging commences at the tower foundation.


June 8th - Equipment and foundation steel arrived.