Bluemont Grain Elevator Conversion into Telephone Tower
Workmen ride up to tweak the tower side in the morning sunlight
Years after the idea was first suggested, work to convert the old Bluemont grain elevator into a telephone tower seems to be approaching an end. Using an enormous crane, workers are moving the big boxes of communications equipment into place and completing the higher, new outside walls, which will resemble the color and texture of the original Bluemont Grain Elevator.
The carriers signed up for service are AT&T, Verizon, and Roadstar Internet.
“The on-air target date for AT&T and Verizon is the end of December,” explained Tim Dennis of Waterford, Director Site Development of Global Tower Partners, the company that is doing the work. It will be tight, but yes, we are tracking towards that date.”
The tower is owned by Bluemont’s Rosemary Stanger. Stanger has built a replica of the old W& OD Bluemont railroad station at the base of the tower and frequently holds crafts shows there.
Jan 23, 2012 UPDATE from Tim Dennis, Director of Development, Global Towers Partners:
The re-creation of the freight building used to house the radio room for carriers is complete and operational. This includes the geothermal cooling system- the first geothermal cooled site in the US. Verizon, Roadstar and AT&T have completed the installation of their respective transmitter equipment. Additionally a key element was the installation of fiber to the building that was available for Roadstar to use. This is what allowed Roadstar to increase its speeds and drive down latency in their network.
The fiber pipe goes from our building directly to the Equinex Data center in Ashburn, VA — the heart of the Internet.
The structural tower work is completed and the base wall panels installed. The carrier antennas are installed as well. The finish material on the panels had not cured when Hurricane Sandy hit and they were damaged. Because we were into winter temps at that point we closed up the project for the winter and cleaned up the site. We will remobilize the site in spring when we have sufficient temps to finish the wall treatment and paint the structure. Verizon Wireless is on the air and AT&T is preparing to do same.
Years after years the idea was first suggested, work on the Bluemont telephone tower seems to be approaching an end.
Workers using an enormous crane moved the big boxes of communications equipment into place and completed the outside walls, which will resemble the color and texture of the original Bluemont Grain Elevator.
The carriers signed up for service are AT&T, Verizon, and Roadstar Internet.
“The target date for on-air for AT&T and Verizon is the end of December,” explained Tim Dennis of Waterford, Director Site Development, of Global Tower Partners, the company that is doing the work.
“It will be tight, but yes, we are tracking towards that date.”
The tower is owned by Bluemont’s Rosemary Stanger. Stanger has built a replica of the old W& OD Bluemont railroad station at the base of the tower and frequently holds crafts shows there.
