Monument/Cell Tower Relocation

Last week, the Washington Monument replica cell tower in Ridgeland was moved with success.  We have been working with the HC Bailey Company for the past year on the new location for the tower.

The tower was moved to allow the new interchange and frontage road along Interstate 55.  What made the relocation impressive is that it was moved in one piece.

A few interesting facts about the tower are:

- The Monument Tower is 195 ft. tall and weighs 120,000 pounds.

- The beams that were welded to the tower and used to move the tower were 21,000 pounds each. Four total 84,000 pounds.
- Two trailers were hooked together on each side of the tower to make the move. Each of these pairs of trailers weighed 140,000 pounds or two sets is 280,000 pounds.
- The total weight that was moved over the road that has been built is 484,000 pounds.
- There are 96 tires per set of trailers or a total of 192 tires on the trailers. When moving the tower each tire will bear 2,520 pounds of weight.

Due to the weekly rain events we have had over the past few months, the contractors placed a boardwalk for the trailers to travel on avoiding the risk of encountering any soft spots throwing the tower off balance.

This is one of the trailers that was used to haul the tower.  The beams on top of the trailer was welded to the base of the tower then adhered to the trailers. 

This picture shows the old location in the foreground with the tower in place at its new location.

If you wonder what the inside of the tower looks like, well here it is.  It is interesting to see how much light still comes in through the edges of the individual panels.

Safe Routes to School - (update)

We recently conducted a field review with MDOT (Mississippi Department of Transportation), where we walked through the conceptual plans for the Madison Safe Routes to School Project. We will have one more review with MDOT before our final submittal in January. We are looking forward to what this project will provide for both the students of the Madison Avenue Schools and the community as a whole.

Below are conceptual images we used during the early stages of the project as we met with school officials, parents, and representatives of neighboring communities.

This image shows upgrading the intersection signals with pedestrian crossing signals and replacing the thin stripes with a more dominant striping to provide a safer crossing.

The image below shows a segment of the proposed trail system that will allow the kids in the surrounding neighborhoods safe access to the schools.