Cost to Build a Tower

[bnice]

Does anybody know what a ballpark cost to build a 400' free-standing tower is (excluding antennas or transmission line)?

[radiomidwest]

Depends on the loading for the tower. A 400' self-supporting tower is BIGGG $$$ A guyed tower will be less than 1/2 the price. I think the 400' SS will run $200,000+ Depending.......

[Jim202]

Very expensive, and the foundation is usually about the same cost as the tower. Unless you have an extreme justification for such a tower, don't even think about it. Your much better off building a guyed tower.

If the land is the issue, you could still be better of moving down the road and buying a different plot than paying for that big of a tower.

Don't forget the antenna wind load design. The more antennas and coax you put up there, the more the tower is going to cost.

The tallest, largest self support tower I have seen is in the New Orleans area. It was put up for the Jefferson Parish communications trunking system. They took down a guyed tower, built a jail and put up this large monster. If I was a taxpayer there, I would have raised hell about the tax money that went into this.

Getting back to your main question, the best way to get an exact answer is to do your homework. Lay out all the antennas and future antennas that need to go on the tower. Get a soils reqort from a good geotech company, and then start calling the different tower companies. There are not many that can handle your needs for this tower. Only they can come up with the dollar figure. It wouldn't surprise me that just the steel would run about $70,000. Then you have the cost of stacking it, the cost of the foundation and don't forget the land. The cheap part is the antennas and the coax.

Jim

[batdude]

one of the 400ft self supporters in jax was IVO $500k for aquisition, permitting, and foundation.

the freaking 4 leg foundation alone was over 1/2 the cost --- ever seen 90ft holes dug in the ground???? (one for each leg - then stuffed with rebar and filled with rock/crete)


this contrasts to a guyed tower that can EASILY be bought used, erected and OTA for less than $20-$25k (400ft)


d

[Tom in D.C.]

In DC, yes, IN DC, we have a 900+ foot tower smack dab on the Eastern side of Northwest DC. (Exact location is 9th & Peabody Streets, one block off Georgia Avenue.) Looks like a cheap copy of the Eiffel Tower. I've stood under the base (it's got four legs, each about a half a city block apart) and looked up and it made me dizzy. It handles Channel 50 WBTV plus a ton of PS repeaters, LMR, etc. Also used as one of the Motorola 900 mHz trunked sites.

What a monster. Must have cost several million bucks to build, to say nothing of the cost of a whole city block, although there was a much smaller tower on the site already, so maybe the land cost was not a factor. The voteless citizens of DC opposed the whole idea, saying who needs this monster in our backyards, but as usual no one listened.

[007]

Here in town, the local FOX station (used to CBS), has an -old- freestanding 900ish foot (don't know exactly...but it's high) tower.

That thing makes all sorts of bad metal-in-motion noise in the wind (much more so that the rest of the towers in the farm). If it's windy enough, you can watch it sway in the wind...kinda cool.

The only reason they haven't built a new guyed tower is they don't have enough property for the guys to come down to....oops!

[ASTROMODAT]

$1,000/Ft is a good ballpark figure for budgetary planning purposes. Then don't forget ongoing annual maintenace costs. You will have to light it, which is costly in terms of both first cost and annaul maintenance. For instance, if a light goes out on Christmas Eve in the middle of a huge snow storm, you MUST get it fixed immediately. The FCC and FAA take no excuses in this matter! Then there is the issue of having to constantly paint it, to meet FAA requirements. A pain and a big cost. Don't forget the huge premiums for liability insurance, which will be needed to cover the exposure of the helicopter pilot and crew (for adding new antennas, arms, etc), and to cover any folks on the ground, as well as the tower climber(s). Such insurance is difficult to obtain, and extremely costly. You certainly don't want to operate naked, either. Your better bet is to lease from a site on a tall mountaintop, and/or lease antenna space on someone else's tower, and let them pay for these things, including the maintence and insurance. BTW, I don't know of any tower owner(s) who have gotten rich on this scheme. AT&T was the biggest tower company in the world, and their business case said "Sell!" The folks that have bought up these towers have (thus far) not gotten rich, either. Lots of better ways to make/lose money, like owning and operating a helicopter company! (albeit, at least this way you can continue flying and at least have a decent income, but it won't get you rich!).

Larry

[mancow]

The pic doesn't do it justice. This thing is in Kansas City and is a huge freestanding monster.
From the KCTV5 web site....

The tower legs are 87.5 feet apart at the base.
Over 600 tons of steel and nearly 26,000 bolts make up the structure.
Total weight is over 1,200,000 pounds!
Over 5 miles of copper wire connect the tower lighting circuits.
The tower is 956 feet tall. The antenna mounted on top of the tower makes the overall height above ground 1,042 feet. That's 2,049 feet above sea level!
Taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the KCTV5 tower and antenna together are twice as tall as the famed Washington Monument.
There are 1,360 white light bulbs (25 watt) attached to the four legs that make our tower a Kansas City landmark.
The flashing air navigation strobe lights were added in 1977.









mancow

[Jim202]

I forgot about the monster there in St. Louis. Been a few years since I was there looking at towers and rental space.

As I said before, TALL self support towers have big legs and lots of steel.

Jim

[nmfire10]

I can't imagine working on these things. The highest I have ever been in my life is the helipad at work which is 14 floors up. That in and of itself is really high and great view. Standing on a 1,000ft tower and just hanging out for a few hours is insanse.

[perthcom]

This is the tallest free-standing radio tower in the world at 1,815 feet.

... then someone said.. hey lets put a resturant up there and make it revolve.
... and hey a disco.. wow... COOL..

Build it and they will come.

http://www.cntower.ca/faqs/l3_faq_cools ... allery.htm

Few people realize it was built just as a radio tower.

[Pj]

Isn't there a fairly good sized one in San Francisco that has people miffed?

[techie]

Isn't there a fairly good sized one in San Francisco that has people miffed?

Sutro tower.. 3 legs, self supporting, 977 feet..


some info on the tower: http://www.jimprice.com/sutro/

more info on the tower: http://www.omnilan.com/ktvu_twr.htm

the activists page: http://www.sutro.org

the official Sutro Tower Inc page: (does not seem to exist..)

[EngineerZ]

400 ft is pretty big as self-supporters go... The largest self supporter I put up has been a 330 ft model from PiROD that went up in spring of this year. IIRC the cost was about $80k for the steel plus about another $80k for erection including the drilled pier (caisson) foundation. I'm guessing 400-ft would be in the neighbohood of $225k for the tower, foundation, and erection. Keep in mind though with towers this size the foundation is quite large and can vary quite a bit depending on local soil conditions, thus the cost can vary quite a bit. So that $225k could easily be $200k or $300k... The only way to know what the soil conditions are like is to have core borings done and analyzed by a geotechnical engineer.

A guyed tower might be cheaper for labor and materials, but in some areas of the country land prices can quickly counteract that advantage.

--z

[apco25]

THe illinois Tollway uses self supporting towers exclusively varying in height from 50ft to nearly 400ft depending upon the site location.

They have an exceptional system linked via triple backup up fiber, wireline and microwave.

[Mike in CT]

I'm a retired tower jock.

Depending on the soils, brand of tower (!) and intended loading, you can spend between $200K and $600K. There are many variables involved.

If you have some large tenants committed, try to work a deal where one of them will design the tower according to YOUR intended loading... then you will have an idea where you stand in the area of footings (a major expense, usually more than the steel itself), steel, grounding, etc, etc.

and speaking of tall self supporters, I think the highest concentration of self supporters at 300+ feet is in Cincinnati.

They must have one on every other corner! The finest irony: Star 65 (I think its around 400+ feet) is almost in my sons backyard. And he is one of those tower hating tree huggers.

but dear old Dad (who paid for his braces, college, the house D/P etc) was a tower jock!!!

sweet justice, sweeter revenge!!

Happy holidays!


Mike KM1R
in tropical Southern Connecticut

[evanh]

The pic doesn't do it justice. This thing is in Kansas City and is a huge freestanding monster.
From the KCTV5 web site....

About 20 years ago, I remember sitting in my truck watching the ice fly off this baby.

It was the first sunny day after an ice storm, so it really glistened as it fell. It only took a little bit of wind to blow it a half block away.

Some of the chunks were big enough to really do some damage.

[nmfire10]

The finest irony: Star 65 (I think its around 400+ feet) is almost in my sons backyard. And he is one of those tower hating tree huggers.

Gee Mike, he must have loved what you did in your own back yard then....