OSHA warns the onset of cold winter weather includes a seasonal threat to tower workers: falling ice. Andreas Shroeder, a physics professor form the University of Illinois-Chicago, provides this scenario: a half inch icicle traveling with sufficient velocity can deliver a blow equal to a 1,000-lb hit with an 80 to 90 mph punch. As he put it, “That is the roughly the same as a five-ounce baseball thrown by a Major League pitcher hitting you in the head.”
Tower crews servicing ice-laden towers have reported having their vehicles flattened by refrigerator sized chunks of fallen ice. OSHA states ice from a cell tower can travel as far out as 50-to-100 feet from the structure and even farther with sheets of ice in a strong wind. They recommend you wear your hard hat at all times.
December 13, 2018
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