AATA's Tall Radio Tower Topples

Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) officials are investigating the collapse Monday night of a 200-foot high radio tower under construction on AATA grounds in Pittsfield Township. Reportedly, no one was injured. An unconfirmed $20,000 estímate was placed on damage to the towèr including expected replacement installation costs. No vehicles or other equipment were reported damaged by the falling tower when it toppled onto vacant property on the 10acre site. Preliminary reports indícate that a vehicle, possibly an AATA bus, may have struck some part of the tower's supporting fixtures prior to its collapse. As the tower began to waver, it reportedly collapsed into sections like a telescope, as it was apparently designed to do for safety. It feil onto the grounds at the rear of the bus storage yard behind AATA maintenance and office buildings. The tower will bê part of an approximately $500,000 digital Communications and dispatch system approved by AATA for purchase and phase-in over the next few months. Some of the system 's radios have already been installed in AATA buses, and the radio tower had been in use until its collapse. Loss of the tower left AATA without radio capacity for some of its services, although AATA Assistant Director Robert Works said the Southwest Ann Arbor Dial-A-kide radio communication, which uses another frequency, was still operational. AATA Attorney Jerold Lax said Thursday that "steps have been taken to repair" the tower and AATA's permanent radio facilities, but he said 'temporary f uil radio service has been restored in the meantime. Unconfirmed reports indicated that the temporary service was in operation by about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. The incident was revealed to the AATA board and the public during Wednesday night's regular AATA board meeting when several AATA bus drivers appeared before the board under the "public time" portion of the agenda. AATA board members then discussed the incident with AATA Executive Director Karl Guenther in executive se,ssion after the appearance of the drivers at the meeting. Board members and Guenther did not want public disclosure of the incident until AATA has completed an investigation. Inquiries about the incident at AATA offices Thursday were referred to Lax. He declined to discuss details of the I dent and indicated he is not yet familiar I with many of the details. During the "public time" portion of I the agenda, the drivers complained to I the board about what they described as I crowded conditions in the bus storage 1 yard, located behind the office and I tenance garage at the AATA site at 3700 I Carpenter Rd. Buses are stored in the I yard behind the building, since there is I no bus storage building. Installation of the tower was included I in a $500,000 contract with Metroscan, I Inc. of New York, signed last year when I AATA voted to purchase the I sive Communications system. The I tract stipulated that Metroscan would I provide, install or have installed most if I not all of the Communications system, I cluding the tower. The tower, still under construction, I had been erected only to a height of 200 1 feet, but the tower's remaining 50 feet of j height was to have been topped off I in days. AATA has taken steps to erect a bus storage building as part of its plan to provide AATA permanent facilities on the Carpenter Road site. Until that building is completed, buses are parked and stored in the yard. According to preliminary, unconfirmed reports, the tower toppled when one of the three supporting guy wires went slack. The wire or a supporting post may have been struck by a vehicle, believed to be an AATA bus, prior to the tower's collapse, according to unconfirmed reports. "Every aspect of the mishap is being investigated," said Lax, indicating that I Guenther will probably take charge of I the probé. A pólice report on the incident was not made, Guenther said Wednesday I night. ■