In order to supplement an increased demand of coverage for the Moscow customer network, AT&T has requested the City of Moscow’s approval to install additional antennas onto the water tower in the Northwest Reservoir. The Northwest Reservoir refers to the area located on Residence Street also covering Almon Asbury Lieuallen Park. The property includes the structure and its catwalk. City Engineer Kevin Lilly said the city helped review AT&T’s method of attachment and specifications of the equipment.
“They usually supply us with a plan of the site, showing what they have and what they plan to add. We review that before showing their plan of attachment,” Lilly said.
Lilly said these requests are not abnormal — they happen every few months, but the city still has some concerns.
“We’re starting to be concerned about the amount of hardware that’s up there, most of it is mounted to the catwalk that’s on the tank,” Lilly said. “We have leased the space to various communications companies, but at some point the weight of all that equipment will exceed design specifications.”
The agreement allows AT&T a temporary installation until further review.
“We are having a study done by Rimrock Consulting Engineers that will tell us how much is there, and now, what the capacity of the structure is and how much additional load it can take if any,” Lilly said.
According to the draft agreement, AT&T is responsible for research funding, temporary installment of the antennas and removal if necessary.
Information Systems Department Director Jesse Flowers said when these water tanks were designed and built nobody dreamt they would be hanging this much additional equipment onto them.
“Most of this equipment is being attached to railing around the tank which was designed and built for employee and human safety, and over the years there’s been more equipment added to the railing for increased wireless signals,” Flowers said.
The city is concerned about the safety issue.
“Our engineering department just wanted to make sure there was thorough analysis done of the tank to make sure it was not creating a weakness in the railing if a human were to trip and fall while working on the tank,” Flowers said.
Flowers said his department is responsible for the contract that has been drafted between the City of Moscow and AT&T, as well as any potential changes.
“We just want to make sure that it’s not going to be a danger for its primary purpose, which is providing water to the city,” Flowers said.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]