‘Stop work’ order given on AT&T’s tower

MEEKER I The AT&T tower under construction south of Meeker on County Road 13 has been hit with a “stop work order,” which puts an instant halt to continuing work on the equipment building at the site.
County Building Official Jeff Kummer said Tuesday that it was noticed on July 2 that the concrete foundation, reinforcement and ground preparation had been completed without any inspections scheduled or completed. At that time, attempts were made to contact the contractors doing the work to discuss the situation.
On July 8, after receiving no response from the contractors and noticing the equipment building had been set on the unapproved foundation, the stop work order was issued on the equipment shelter.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with the tower,” Kummer said. “It is the equipment building that is in question. The foundation of the building was poured without the necessary inspection having been done.”
An approval of the foundation and associated ground preparation by a Colorado-licensed engineer has been requested and must be received and approved before work will be allowed to continue on the shelter, he said.
“This letter could come in any time,” Kummer said Tuesday. “If they can assure me that the foundation is correct, then I have no problem with the project getting back on line.”
The 105-foot tall AT&T tower will allow for 4G transmissions in the area, a Mercury Tower official said. It is located just off County Road 13 and was placed on property owned by Joe Conrado.
“This tower will allow for faster uploading and downloading of information such as the Internet,” the Mercury official said. “It should speed up everything to do with computers and improve the quality and speed of cell phones within the AT&T system.”
“Neither AT&T nor Mercury have told me that this stop work order is actually holding up the project because there are plenty of little things that need to be done before they will be operational,” Kummer said. “I imagine that once the stop work order is lifted, it will take only a couple more weeks before the project is completed.
“I don’t know what all is needed before AT&T is ready to go fully online with the tower,” Kummer said. “I would imagine that if I get the letter soon regarding the equipment building’s foundation and all is well, it wouldn’t be too long before the tower is in full service.”