Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 04 September 2013 - 09:43 AM
Crown Castle trucks at the old tower working at one of the shelters.
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And moving away from the tower ...
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Looks like air conditioner units on the trailer.
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And as soon as they cleared out, all equipment left the hill prior to the next shot.
Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 04 September 2013 - 09:45 AM
View before the shot...
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And a vid...
And after the shot.
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 05 September 2013 - 10:43 AM
Well, it's been said that it may be a curse to live in 'interesting times'. Guess so.
All during this Saga whenever I was near the hill with the old tower, either to the west or the east, I had 5 bars of 4G LTE (VZW) and dBm reading of -80 dBm or better. When I went over to check on the Austin Powder folks this morning I had 2 bars and -100 dBm or worse on both sides of the hill, so I conclude that the old tower is now out of service, for VZW, at least.
The new tower is within sight of the used car lot I use for a vantage point on the west side of the hill, -110 dBm...not good!
Drove back home to check signal strength both at my desk and out in front of the garage where I catch my smoke breaks...only 1 or 2 bars with -115 dBm outside and the Bionic dropped back to 3G when i went inside...*very* not good!
Guess I can hope that they are still 'fine tuning' and/or 'adjusting' stuff - you can be sure I'll be watching it closely from now on.
Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 05 September 2013 - 10:59 AM
Decided to get closer to the new tower to check signal strength so drove up the the spot where the backfill material for the new tower foundation came from...
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Bummer...only got -100 dBm here. Waitaminnit...what's that on top?
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Looks like the cormorants I used to see sunning themselves when I was in Florida, but I don't think that's causing my signal problems since those are AT&T transmitters on the top level.
Sigh.
Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 05 September 2013 - 11:04 AM
Meanwhile, Austin Powder folks were ready. Before...
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The vid...
And after...
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Now back to signal miseries...power down and back up didn't help anything - still 3G.
Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 05 September 2013 - 06:40 PM
Well now, flipped the phone on to check what Mike Pereira had to say about a call in the Broncs v. Ravens game and whatta ya know...5 bars of 4G at -85 dBm at my desk! That's more like it!! 
:
Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 06 September 2013 - 10:54 AM
Looking at the Mobile network signal bar, it's apparent when they got things settled down.
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And today things are still looking very good...during this time I drove all over the project area and that bar stayed green!
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 06 September 2013 - 11:11 AM
The scavengers have descended (ascended?) on the old tower site...trucks, cranes and a bucket lift.
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The local utility bucket lift operator pulls all the line switches to power it down.
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Then all their equipment had to leave the hill while they set off a shot near the freeway.
Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 06 September 2013 - 11:17 AM
From behind the warehouse again. This charge is using about 13,000 lbs of powder, about twice the amount used yesterday over near the Honda shop. Before...
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The vid...
And after...
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Closer view of the after pic...
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 06 September 2013 - 11:21 AM
Now they've started ripping out the asphalt/concrete pads that used to be pull-through RV spots.
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And now spreading layers of fill.
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I might soon have to find a different place to park while I observe the action!
Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 08 September 2013 - 12:28 PM
Saturday was an eventful day...when I parked, the Kawasaki 4-wheeler pulled in beside me and I thought "Rutt-roh!..." and I asked if I needed to find a different spot to park and they said "No, won't be filling that area in for a while." Whew!
Then we started talking about whether any of my neighbors had been complaining about the noise/shocks of the charges they had been setting off...not mine, but seems like some of the folks that had originally opposed the whole development have been repeat complainers...cracks in garage slabs or walls, mostly.
The prime contractor has a geo-tech firm on board that takes multiple seismographic readings for every shot, so they have documentation that they've never exceeded whatever limits are required - the Fire Marshal has frequently mentioned to me that he maintains the seismic info files and deals with whatever complaints that come in...what a job that must be!
We talked some more about the next steps on the project and that a second cone crusher wasn't running yet due to a broken conveyor belt and parts were still on order for the 'turtle dozer'.
Just as they were about to pull away they asked why don't I take the time to drive on up to the top of the old tower hill for a good overview of everything! Said the Crown Castle guys weren't working that day so I could have the whole hill to myself.
"Oh, hell-yeah!!"
I ended up spending over 2 hours up there and took nearly a hundred pics...don't worry, I won't bore all-y'all with that many...gonna sort out several to post and will keep all of them in a folder for my own future reference.
Will try to get the ones to post sorted out during my recorded F-1 and NFL games this afternoon.
Here's one looking down that *steep* road that had my AWD spinning all four wheels on the way up...and then the "AWD Disable" warning light started blinking and bong-ing...thought I was gonna sh!t my drawers!
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 09 September 2013 - 12:10 PM
Decided to first show cell tower related views and then a few shots of the whole project area as it looked on Saturday. First, the western part of the tower yard.
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On the eastern part, the sole remaining shelter (which has a date with 'Snoopy' later on)!
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The east face of the yard...
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The original gate and open panels inside. They've cut the cyclone fence in several places now and 'secure' the openings with zip ties.
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An empty concrete pad from the shelter removed earlier and a standby diesel generator.
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The stub ends of coax cables already cut.
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More cut coax cables from the shelter.
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As of Saturday AT&T was still running on the old tower, I could hear the cabinet cooling fan cycling and the coax is still intact.
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 09 September 2013 - 01:20 PM
On the way up - the pit to the east of the Honda shop and in the upper right corner is where I'm headed.
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The familiar blue Portajohn landmark.
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The pit along the big rock wall.
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With my back to the old tower looking toward the new one.
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 09 September 2013 - 01:40 PM
The next pics will basically be going counter-clockwise around the project.
The northwest corner of the project - Honda shop and Comfort Inn will stay.
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The southwest corner - back side of the double billboard. Pit on left edge is the old quarry for material when Exit 5 was revised. A service truck is parked beside the 'turtle dozer' to the right in the pic.
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The main haul road from the west to the east side of the hill.
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The I-81 Freeway is along the south border of the project. Austin Powder crew is loading charges into the drilled holes using the overhead pipe from the truck. The warehouse at the top is the one I go behind to get vids of shots along the freeway.
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Pics from the breakdown lane have been taken at this end of the sound wall. The second cone crusher is in the middle of the pic (still down with a broken belt). To the left of it is part of the big gravel pile from the original crusher.
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 09 September 2013 - 02:25 PM
The southeast corner of the project is way in the distance beyond the solitary tree. A storm water run-off creek (not spring-fed) runs from left to right.
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The northeast corner is in the distance beyond the white strip mall buildings. Lee Highway is the north border running along this side of the trees upper left.
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This is the incomplete discharge end of the runoff creek tunnel with one circular vent tower stub in view. More sections of the vent will probably be added as backfilling continues up to finished grade elevation and a manhole cover on top. The completed tunnel will discharge into Clear Creek which runs along the south border of the project.
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The haul road now crosses the creek bed here. The creek has been dammed at the north end and a temporary diversion pump and piping has been in place for months.
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Gravel from the stockpile seen earlier is being placed along the sides and over the tunnel and a new haul road crossing will go in here after some more backfill so that the old crossing can be dug out and the tunnel completed.
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 09 September 2013 - 02:47 PM
This is the Kawasaki driven by the crew leader that offered my visit to the hilltop.
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And this is the Purple Pickup with the flashers that checks that the freeway is clear before each shot.
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 09 September 2013 - 03:50 PM
And now...meet 'Snoopy'!
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...the big old crane.
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Snoopy and the lo-boy up on top...
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And in position...
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But first we have to pull off the hill for the 'Before' pic
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And the vid...
And the 'After' pic...
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 09 September 2013 - 03:57 PM
Now we get back to Snoopy...
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First the shelter...
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Then the generator...
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Tie it all down...
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Send Snoopy down...
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And a dozer up to play caboose...
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For the whole train coming down.
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Top of the hill starting to look a little nekkid!
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 10 September 2013 - 03:19 PM
Tuesday morning...someone on top of the AT&T cabinet. From down here I can't tell if they've cut the coax yet or not.
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Two drills working on the narrow edge of the hill along the freeway. First time to be able to see them from this side.
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Can no longer see those drills from the breakdown lane.
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Was Shopping Advisor - Low Rates Now Alaska,the Last Frontier Fa
Posted 10 September 2013 - 04:07 PM
Finally setting charges on the west side again. That pit this side of the rock wall is so deep we only see the dust rise.
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