It’s going to be very cool to watch this new tower go up, and the old one being dismantled. The gin pole system used to erect the new tower will be used in “Chicago Boom” fashion to dismantle and lower the old tower to the ground, piece-by-piece. As the crews work their way back down from the top of the new tower, using the gin pole system to hoist and install all the new antennas, feedlines, and other hardware (plus “swing” a few items over from the old tower to the new one for continued use), they will literally lean the upper part of the gin pole/boom assembly over to the old tower to move things and — most notably — lower the old tower to the ground section-by-section. The tower that’s being replaced was built back in the 1960’s. It has weather many, many storms and serves (or has served) numerous broadcast and communications antennas and systems over the years. It currently serves everything from cell phone services, public safety repeaters, paging systems, the Auburn, AL NOAA/NWS Weather Radio transmitter, and more.
I would love a bit taller tower here at my house for antennas. I’m just not sure they’d load the old tower sections on the roof of my van and let me haul it home. Oh, well… the neighbors might not be so thrilled if a 450′ tower just popped up in my back yard. Oh, and there’s also that issue of a silly 52′ tower ordinance… doggone it…