Painting and renovation of the elevated water storage tank on N. Maple Avenue began in earnest in May 2018. Prior to painting the tower, a temporary cell tower was erected and the cellular antennas were removed from the tank. The antennas that were placed on the temporary tower were not necessarily the same as those removed; this differed for each carrier.
The interior painting of the elevated water tank was completed in December 2018. Exterior painting of the tank was delayed until 2019 due to weather. The exterior coating was completed in August, 2019. During the project, a structural analysis found that the elevated water tank could not support the antennas that the carriers proposed to put back on to the tank, and onto the catwalk around the bowl of the tank. Town staff and our outside attorney, Matt Ames, have been working with the carriers and their design engineer to finalize a design to modify the tank as needed, get quotes from contractors, and finalize the carrier Contracts with the Town.
With respect to the leases with the Town, Verizon and T-Mobile have current leases. Sprint & AT&T leases are very close to agreeing to final terms. Matt Ames states that there may be only minor changes before the lease language is finalized. However, Sprint and AT&T would not agree to move forward with signing the leases until numbers for the structural modifications were finalized.
The Town received only two quotes for the costs to modify the tank. The lowest cost is from Pittsburgh Tank & Tower, with an estimated cost of $203,800. This total cost is proposed to be prorated between the four carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T- Mobile) and the Town based on the weight of the equipment that is proposed to be on the tank. Using this approach, the Town’s cost is $27,180.
During the week of January 27, Matt Ames will be contacting each of the carriers separately to finalize the lease agreements and cost sharing with the carriers. Each carrier must agree to issue a purchase order to Pittsburgh Tank & Tower to perform the work, and to finalize the lease agreements. If the carriers are willing, this should take 2-3 weeks to issue the Purchase Order to the Pittsburgh Tank & Tower. Once the Agreements are finalized and the Purchase Orders are issued to Pittsburgh Tank & Tower, we anticipate the following timeline for the antennas to be installed on the elevated storage tank:
- Contractor foundation work: 6-8 weeks
- Contractor railing/catwalk work (note that this cost is to be borne solely by the carriers that will install on the catwalk railing, Verizon and T-Mobile): 4-6 weeks
- Cell carriers begin to install antennas onto the tower: each carrier 2-3 weeks, so a total of 8-12 weeks
- Temporary tower removal: 1 week