The Telecommunications Industry Association has been nose-to-the-grindstone on developing safety standards for tower construction and maintenance and there is light at the end of the long tunnel. TIA, accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a “standards developing organization (SDO), expects to have several standards ready for discussion, balloting and perhaps even publication in the coming months, Marianna Kramáriková, TIA’s manager for Technology and Standards told Inside Towers.
The standard for tower maintenance will include a provision for removing and adding equipment to the tower. Leading the way is the TIA TR-14 Structural Standards For Communication and Small Wind Turbine Support Structures guideline that the TIA TR-14 committee decided to split into two sections –the ANSI/TIA-1019 – “which TIA will keep the engineering part in ANSI/TIA-322 standard and the American Society of Safety Engineers will keep the rest within ANSI/ASSE-10.48,” Kramáriková said. “On May 26, we launched a ballot for ANSI/TIA-322 Loading Criteria, Analysis, and Design Related to the Installation, Alteration and Maintenance of Communication Structures. As it’s still new, ANSI didn’t release the information of the ‘open ballot’ in their standards action” which she said could happen as early as today Kramáriková said TIA’s ballot will close on July 10 and ANSI ballot will close on July 25. The standards committee will hold a two-day meeting July 19-20 in Boston to put the finishing touches on the standards and that could give the tower industry some hard guidelines. “We hope to do the comment resolution during our Boston meeting (or prior to it) so we can approve ANSI/TIA-322 for a publication. ASSE 10.48 is on track to publish their standard also this year, so we will try to do a joint release of both standards,” she said. To reach Marianna Kramáriková for more information and details, email her at [email protected].
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