San Francisco, CA

Sutro Tower

Scope/Solutions

Built in 1972, the 977 ft Sutro Tower is the tallest tower in California and serves as a base for radio, television, and microwave transmission throughout the Bay Area. Since 2002, SGH has performed a wide range of engineering services, including seismic evaluation and upgrade, structural design of tower reconfiguration, annual inspection and repairs, design of sitework, and addition of appurtenant structures. In 2017, SGH provided structural engineering services to support a major upgrade and retrofit of the tower.

Highlights of our services have included:

Developing and maintaining a nonlinear dynamic analysis model to evaluate the
tower’s adequacy for various modifications

  • Conducting wind tunnel and wind vortex shedding studies
  • Analyzing the effects of corrosion on the structure’s stability and safety
  • Evaluating the tower’s exposure to wildfires and developing maintenance plans to mitigate the fire risk
  • Designing structural strengthening for the tower and appurtenant structures to ensure they remain operational following shaking from the specified earthquake loading
  • Designing a full wind and seismic retrofit for the tower and replacement of one of the three masts as part of an larger upgrade to the tower prompted by the FCC’s 2016 digital repack, which resulted in many of the tower’s antennas needing to be replaced to support the new frequencies

Project Summary

Icon: completion-date

2022

Completion Date
Solutions
Repair & Rehabilitation
Services
Structures | Performance & Code Consulting
Markets
Science & Defense
Client(s)
Sutro Tower, Inc.
Specialized Capabilities
Seismic Engineering | Repair & Strengthening

Key team members

Ronald Hamburger
Consulting Principal
415.343.3015 rohamburger@sgh.com
Benjamin Weaver
Senior Consulting Engineer
510.457.4451 bweaver@sgh.com

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Constructed by the U. S. Navy in 1933 to support its lighter-than-air aviation program, Moffett Federal Airfield was transferred to NASA after being decommissioned in 1994. SGH provided building enclosure and materials science services for the project.
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