The tenants of 165 Pinehurst Avenue in New York City have a dilemma: they have perfect reception thanks to the two T-Mobile and AT&T cellular base stations and 20 antennas installed on their roof, but they’ve been told by the building’s owner, who receives compensation for housing the antennas, that the roof could not support a single human’s body weight. Uh oh!
While the >New York Times interviewed one wireless expert who said it was unlikely that the base stations, both of which about as much as “three fat men”, are causing structural damage to the building, tenants have noticed some distressing damage since the second station was installed about a year ago:
Long, zigzagging cracks have appeared along the building’s outer walls, and mortar has crumbled from the parapet, which supports hefty I-beams upon which the base stations sit.
AT&T and T-Mobile said that the installations were safe and in accordance with building codes, though the city’s Buildings Department slapped the landlord with a violation after a city engineer found “four large cracks beneath the base station’s support beams”. Several tenants are suing the landlord for installing the base stations in the first place.
There’s also the matter of the higher apartments being soaked radio emissions that greatly exceed the federal limit, but the vague threat of cancer some dozens of years down the line doesn’t seem quite as pressing as the possibility of your roof caving in on top of you at any moment. At least you’d be able to call for help. [New York Times]
Daniel
Saturday, August 21, 2010 at 1:02 PMOf course it can’t support a person’s weight… look at where those 2 fools in the picture are walking. That’s what the fucking channeling is for! You don’t just walk on what looks like a “tin roof” like that.
The antennas will be fine. We have antennas on our building at work, but when we walk up there, you have to walk along the channeling which is made to support your weight – like with most roofs. Whoever put the antennas up would have made support for them. Those cracks are probably just from some moron who thinks he knows what he’s doing.
Some people should think before making statements like this. And the tennants shouldn’t be led on false claims like this.
steve
Saturday, August 21, 2010 at 2:00 PMgo danielle… ahh, perhaps that’s not the building in question and… those lines you so cleverly pointed out for “walking channels” are actually the conduits for the phone antennas…
i agree with you fully.. “Some people should think before making statements like this.”
You sir, are a moron!
Steve
Monday, August 23, 2010 at 1:53 PMSteve, why do you take my name in vain?
Daniel
Friday, September 3, 2010 at 1:38 AMWhat the hell are you talking about? The conduit for cables (phone and electrical) both have to be under the roof – those channels don’t mean anything other than the purpose of giving support.
I don’t have any idea where you pulled that one from.