Latest project
Telecom Site Development - Working on remote Islands
Star Net has recently completed two tower build & one tower extension project for Wireless Infrastructure Group on the Orkney Islands.
BT Media and Broadcast working in partnership with Arqiva had identified Wireless Infrastructure Group sites on the Orkney Islands to accommodate high capacity microwave link equipment to support the Digital Switchover.
The existing 25m high WIG tower on the island of Sanday was one of the sites chosen to accommodate three new microwave links, each link being over 2.4m diameter. Star Net designed & built new face frames for two of the links as well as installing a new 5m tower extension to hold the remaining microwave link.
The second site to be selected was Milldoe on the Orkney mainland. The existing 26.5m tower was nearing the end of its life span and in order to accommodate the new Arqiva microwave links a new tower had to be built. Star Net, working closely with a leading tower manufacturer identified a suitable lattice tower and were able to offer WIG a solution which met their requirements. A new tower base was installed in December 2008 and the tower build commenced in mid July 2009 and was completed two weeks later. As well as building the new tower Star Net had to construct new feeder runs, decommission operators from old tower, relocate to new tower, rig and test as per the operators guidelines then decommission the old tower. This site also drew attention from local BBC radio who were interested in the changing skyline of area.
The final site chosen was on the remote island of North Ronaldsay. The WIG site had a 37.5m lattice tower installed with very limited space for new equipment. It was decided at the site MSV that a new 36.0m lattice tower would be installed to accommodate four large Arqiva microwave links. The new tower would be situated approximately 10m to the South East of the existing tower. Once again Star Net, working closely with a leading tower manufacturer identified a suitable lattice tower and were able to offer WIG a solution which met their requirements. Star Net and their contractors then had the arduous task of getting all materials for a new concrete tower base onto the island and then the problematic job of mixing over 85m³ of concrete for the new tower foundation on an island with no concrete batching plant. A mobile batching plant was sourced and the concrete for the base was poured over a 24 hour period at the beginning of July 2009. The tower build begun two weeks later and was completed in early August 2009.