New communications tower required in Cedar Rapids by federal mandate

A 360-foot communications tower has been rising this week at the corner of 16th Avenue and West Post Road in southwest Cedar Rapids.

The tower, antennas, ground shelter, generator, propane tank and related equipment are part of a federally mandated statewide upgrade of Iowa's Emergency Management System communications. The new tower will replace a shorter structure erected for the Iowa Department of Public Safety in the early 1980s.

Pyramid Network Services of Syracuse, N.Y., is the contractor for the project.

Crews began assembling the sections of the self-supporting lattice tower after a prefabricated equipment shelter was delivered to the site by flatbed truck and lowered in place with a crane.

'They will be tearing down the existing tower,” said Vern Zakostelecky, zoning administrator with the Cedar Rapids Building Services Department. 'The higher tower is necessary to meet a broader area requirement coverage of the Federal Communications Commission.”

The Cedar Rapids Planning Commission recommended approval of a revised site development plan for the 4.7-acre parcel of land in August 2016. The Cedar Rapids City Council approved the change later that month.

The new tower will be 360 feet from houses to the north and 270 feet from residential properties to the south. The Iowa Department of Public Safety District 11 Office occupies a building on the site.

Although the federal government has required the emergency management system communications upgrade nationwide, states will not receive any federal funding to cover the cost of the new equipment.