Silveroddo
Senior Member
So I ended up getting approached to have a cell tower built on my property, it all ended up coming together and its currently under construction. Over the course of the leasing process I made it clear that if anything were to get subbed out I wanted right of first refusal for the site work that was to be done, long story short I put together a bid for the access road based on the cocktail napkin drawings and "we're covering out asses" specs that the "Engineers" put together via google earth and never having set foot on the site. It was on the high side but it was a literal translation of their specs, soil stabilization, and doing it right and left a clause open to how it was being bid and if they deemed materials and practices to be more cost effective we could pursue cost savings based on their discretion. Didn't get the job and the next thing I know there's a Bobcat tracked skidsteer, beat up komatsu mini hoe, and a rental Cat 315 w/ a back fill blade in my back yard and the biggest **** show I've witnessed in quite awhile commenced. The access road was 1200' long working in a 30' ROW and was supposed to have a 15' base and 12' top. The tower area was 100x120. My biggest concern leading up to this was having someone local end up with it and having all of the topsoil disappear. This proved to be unfounded because these guys weren't even smart enough to strip it to begin with. My measure for half assed used to be a farmer with an excavator or a logger with a dozer, but its been solidly beat out with Telecom and a 315 with a back fill blade now. After they destroyed 1/3 of the tower site I finally hollered loud enough to get the remaining topsoil stripped and saved which they're now burning up to clean up the rest of the mess they made. I don't think I've seen one thing that didn't have every corner cut or done totally half assed due to laziness or simply stupidity at this point. This leads to my question, anyone familiar with this industry, is this how they all go? For how little there is to these things I'm amazed that the design, engineering, and construction can be this much of a cluster, just straight up boggles my mind.