Overlay Platforms
Mounted on the tower grillage itself and part of a rapid deployment installation, particularly suited to challenging sites, these platforms provide an immediate and safe working space, without the need for hard landscaping or a compound.
Overlay Platforms at challenging sites.
This installation in the Scottish Highlands is an ATS1301 tower with overlay platform, both mounted on a grillage with 8 screw piles. Here, the site is on a ridge, but screw piles with a platform is also the perfect solution for steep slopes or the softest ground, where concrete becomes even more problematic.
No ground to level, no concrete to pour, no compound to build. The entire installation of foundation, platform and tower is a single operation, at a single date, with a single team.
For a remote location like this, removing the need to excavate then get concrete to site, along with it's cure time requiring repeat mobilisations, is a huge help. Speeding install and reducing cost.
Contact FLI Towers for details
Overlay platforms for site upgrades.
Useful for upgrades which require a larger tower to be built on an existing small or congested site with redundant mass concrete or buried services.
Requiring less space than a new concrete foundation for a larger tower, The grillage and screw piles can bridge the old foundation and be designed to fit into the tightest sites. The overlay platform removes the need to find more space for the cabinets and can also carry either a railing or high fencing to form the entire compound.
This efficient use of space enables a small site to be used for a large tower upgrade without the need to expand the demesne.
These platforms can integrate with both new and existing telecom tower foundations and FLI has off-the-shelf designs for both tower and monopole installations.
81% Lower Carbon Footprint
Screw piles combined with a steel grillage foundation offer a substantial carbon saving over traditional concrete raft foundations, on both material and installation.
The 81% saving example refers to a foundation for a 30m ATS1301 tower.
Assumptions:
- Concrete and spoil lorries travel 25 miles.
- Concrete rafts remain in place at end of life (typical in telecoms).
- Structural steel is recycled in an electric arc furnace.
99% of structural steel sections are recovered and recycled. Unlike a mass concrete foundation which can only be downcycled, a steel grillage foundation can be fully recycled. Screw piles can also be fully removed, unscrewing from the ground faster than they were installed.
The recycling of embodied carbon is where most of the saving is made. However, with no spoil away, fewer HGVs to site and fewer days on site, the installation process itself also delivers a 68% C02 saving over a mass concrete solution.
