CW Milestones Part-1 - Technical Site Survey from Civil works and Site Design Prospective

Technical Site Survey is an important milestone, to be achieved before land/building for Site is being leased or purchased. TSS component of a Network Rollout Turnkey Project is normally owned by Site Acquisition however a CW/SD representative is also part of TSS team. Here CW representative finalize the site and confirms as if site is initially okay from Design, Material transportation and Power availability point of view. In addition to CW representative there are normally three other departments to be represented, which include RF Planning, MW planning and Site Acquisition. It is important that
 a CW guy who is performing this activity should be experienced to handle things, or at least thoroughly briefed about the activity. The briefing should given by the CW/Design manager or a senior member of the team and should include following;

·        What is expected out of him from this TSS

·        What data needs to gathered

·        How to use different equipment at site, and checking accuracy of them before leaving office.

·        Different safety measures, during travelling and while on proposed site during TSS.

And

·        How this report is going to be helpful for the activities following this TSS

Following are the main activities which are normally expected from a CW representative on TSS

1.    SAR coordinates verification

Search Area Radius  (SAR) is defined by initial RF planning. It is distance from nominal point which has also been generated and obtained by various methods by RF team in their initial planning for the coverage. CW Engineer on site has to verify with the help of GPS that the proposed site indicated by SA Rep is within officially defined SAR (Especially the location of tower).  He then needs, to inform RF and MW representatives in the team about the location of antennas. And asking their vetting about the location of tower/antennas, as the location is okay from RF and MW point of view. And if necessary, he needs to make of rough sketch with location of with location of antennas marked on them, and to vet by RF and MW representatives.

2.    Access road to site

That is to check that access from nearby road to site is enough from material transportation point of view.

3.    Tower Height Finalization

Tower height is proposed by CW Representative after knowing the heights of RF and MW antennas. The best possible (that is the lowest possible) towers among the available towers for the project needs to be selected. For example If a project has ordered 4 different heights of towers (60m, 45m, 35m and 30m) and RF has 3 antennas at height (28m,25m, 25m) and MW dish antenna is on 26m. Here the highest antenna size is 28m so you have to use 30m tower. However in another case with same RF heights MW team find LOS clearance at 32m height. Now the deciding height is 32m and you have to select tower of 35m height.

4.    Prospective site Layout

Measure the available site dimensions. And check if available dimensions fulfills that average layout requirement based upon project requirement and with finalized height (Note: Larger the tower, larger the site area will be, because bigger tower has larger footprints, so it requires more foundation size.). If any demolition is required mention the location and quantity.

5.    EGL from RL

This is required by design team to finalize the Site’s surface level. Difference EGL (Existing ground level) to road level. If road is too far from site (that is more than 300-500m), difference between EGL and DPC (Damp Proof Coating) level of nearest houses needs to be taken. This should also be the case when EGL is very down from road level. And if possible take the data from existing site owner and other people living there about the average water level rise during extreme rains or snow. And frequency of precipitation.

6.    Commercial Power Availability

That is checking as if commercial power through national grid is available nearby proposed site or not. And if not, till how far it is available. You may also required to mention the possibility of alternative energy resources like solar, wind etc, and cater for their space also.

7.    Surrounding Structures Status + Distance (Tower excavation to nearby building foundation)

Mention some features of surrounding of site as well, like houses streets, electric poles etc. Also if a water body is present nearby like a River, canal, a lake or pond etc. nearby it mention it and its distance from site.

8.    General Comments

Any other findings which a survey engineer thinks that might be useful for design team need to be incorporated in form of comments. Apparent existing soil condition are also needs to mention like presence of organic material on site etc.