Plans underway for new tower - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Plans underway for new tower

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June 21, 2006

Doerun - It's been two weeks since two television towers came down in Doerun. WALB and WFXL's towers were brought down during controlled demolition after an Army helicopter crashed into one of them June 1st.

Tons of debris littered the site after the demolition, but before work could begin on a new tower, it had to be hauled off. And as of Wednesday, that job is done.

It was the blast heard around South Georgia. As WFXL's tower was demolished so was WALB's. "We did the best we could," says Doug Loizeaux of Controlled Demolition.  "Would we have liked the other one to stand? Yeah, probably, but it just wasn't meant to be.  It would have been a miracle, quite honestly, if we'd have kept it."

Instead, a new plan had to be developed. Cleanup began immediately.  Loizeaux says, "We had about 150 tons of steel to take out, we had a lot of cooper and cable that we had to cut up." Cut up and carry out and now it looks as though the towers never existed. 

Loizeaux says, "We have just completed the cleanup as we speak, I think we're loading the last piece of equipment." Clearing the way for new development. "Now the next step," he says, "is for Raycom to build a new tower and I think one tower is going to take the place of two."

A super tower to hold antenna's for both stations. Nothing's final, but that's the tentative plan. A surveyor arrives on Monday to evaluate the property in order to get things moving.

The best estimate for construction of the new TV tower is about six months. For now, WALB and WFXL continue to broadcast from WALB's shorter tower at the studios in Albany. Much of WALB's news is streamed on walb.com. The 6pm news can also be heard on B100 radio at 100.3 on the FM dial.

Do you miss the towers?  Let us know: news@walb.com?subject=TowerCleanup