B 1.0
Tower construction and erection
Self-support, monopole and guyed structures, erected to an engineered rigging plan and handed over plumb, tensioned and documented.
AGL0–300′
Erection is the most visible part of this trade and the part where the least is left to judgement on the day. Every lift has a plan behind it: what is being picked, by what, rigged how, at what angle, with what capacity left over.
That plan is an engineered document rather than a foreman’s intention. Sling angles change the load on a sling dramatically, and a gin pole is only rated for the configuration it was analysed in. Crews that improvise at height are the reason this industry has the fall-protection rules it has.
What the client actually receives at the end is not a tower — they can see the tower. It is the record that the tower is plumb within tolerance, that guys are tensioned to the design figures at a stated temperature, and that the structure as built matches the structure as drawn. That record is what the next contractor, and the next structural analysis, will work from for the next twenty years.
Define these before a proposal
- Structure type
- Self-support, monopole or guyed. They are three different erection problems with three different crews, equipment sets and durations.
- Height and loading
- Design height and the appurtenance loading the structure is being built to carry, which is what the foundation and the steel were sized for.
- Foundation status
- Whether foundations exist, who poured them, and whether the concrete has reached strength. Erection cannot start before it has.
- Access and laydown
- What a truck can reach, where steel can be laid out, and whether a crane can be set. This moves the schedule more than the steel does.
- Lighting and marking
- Whether the structure requires obstruction lighting and marking, which has to be installed and functional before it is handed over.
What you receive
Erection record, plumb and tension report, as-built package
Submitted in the format your QA process expects, agreed at proposal stage rather than discovered at submission. See the close-out package.
B 1.1 The work
What the scope contains
Planning durations for one structure or one site, with the crew type each line assumes. Crew types are priced on the rates page.
| Work | Crew | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|
| Monopole erectionSectional, crane-set | C4 + crane | 2–4 days |
| Self-support erectionTo 300′, gin pole or crane | C4 + crane | 5–12 days |
| Guyed structure erectionIncluding anchors and initial tensioning | C4 + crane | 8–20 days |
| Foundation and anchor installationWhere in scope | GP + subcontract | 1–3 weeks |
| Plumb and tensionOn completion and after settlement | C2 | 1 day |
| Lighting and marking installationObstruction lighting, monitoring, painting | C2 | 1–3 days |
Rates are USD, exclude engineering, permitting, materials, crane and specialist equipment hire, travel outside the base market and any applicable tax, and are planning ranges for scoping a project rather than an offer or a quotation. Reviewed September 2026. Durations are per structure or per site and exclude mobilisation, weather days and any engineering or permitting lead time. A figure for your site list comes from a written proposal against a defined scope of work. See the disclaimer.
Questions Tower construction and erection
Questions about this scope
Specific to this scope. The general ones — proposals, insurance, weather, close-out, billing — are on the FAQ page.
Do you do the foundations as well?
Sometimes, and it depends on the site. Foundation work is a civil scope with its own testing regime, and on larger structures it is frequently let separately to a civil contractor. Where we carry it, it is carried as a separate line with its own schedule, because erection cannot start until the concrete has reached strength and pretending otherwise just moves the delay later in the programme.
What is a rigging plan and who produces it?
It is an engineered document that states what is being lifted, with what equipment, rigged in what configuration, at what sling angles, and with what capacity in reserve. For anything beyond routine it is produced or reviewed by a qualified engineer, because sling angle changes the tension in a sling by more than most people expect and a gin pole is rated only for the configuration it was analysed in. It exists before the crew mobilises, not on the morning of the lift.
What does plumb and tension mean on handover?
That the structure is vertical within the tolerance its design allows, and, on a guyed structure, that every guy is tensioned to the design figure. Tension is temperature-dependent, so the record states the temperature it was taken at. Both are measured and written down rather than eyeballed, and the record goes into the as-built package.
How long before the site can be used?
Erection is usually not the long pole. On a typical build the sequence is foundations, cure, erection, lighting, then antenna and line work, then commissioning. The erection window itself is days to a few weeks; the programme around it is months, and most of that is engineering, permitting and concrete.
B 0.0 The other scopes
The rest of the elevation
- AGL0–300′
Inspection & Maintenance
Scheduled structural and lighting inspection, guy tension and plumb, and the photo-documented report with a punch list that a site owner can act on.
- AGL60–300′
Antenna & Line Systems
Mount steel, antenna and line installation, hoisting, grounding and the sweep and PIM testing that proves the system before the crew leaves.
- AGL0–300′
Structural Modification
Leg, diagonal and foundation reinforcement carried out to a structural engineer's drawings, so a structure can carry a loading it was not built for.
- AGLGrade
Site Power & HVAC
Standby generators, automatic transfer switches, fuel systems and shelter HVAC — the systems at the base that decide whether the site stays on air.
Send the site list
Telephone with the structures, what has to happen at each one, and the date it has to be finished. We will tell you the crew, the days, what has to be engineered first, and what the close-out package will contain.
Atlantic Tower Services, Inc. · 5301 Pen Ave, Suite 1001, Sanford, FL 32773