The Warsaw radio mast was not just a transmitting device, but was about 17 years the tallest structure in the world. It was a construction that all of Poland was proud of. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever, but the fall of this building came as a surprise to everyone. Why did the Warsaw radio mast collapse, how was it built and operated? Let's find out the answers to these questions.
Reasons for the construction
The construction of a new radio mast was carried out so that the Polish radio could produce reliable broadcasting in Poland, as well as other European countries. To achieve the most optimal effect, it was necessary to build the highest possible design. The existing main broadcasting tower in Poland, near Warsaw, had a height of 335 m. It was necessary to build a much higher structure.
The construction plan was developed by the famous architect Jan Polyak. According to him, the structure was supposed to have a height of 646.4 m, which is almost two times higher than the station existing until then. The Warsaw radio mast was supposed to be located near the village of Konstantinov in the Pลock county of the Masovian Voivodeship, which is 84 km west of the capital.
Construction process
The construction of the Warsaw radio mast began in January 1970. The construction, led by engineer Andrzej Shepczynski, was attended mainly by Polish workers at Mostostal and other local organizations. But the main part of the design - two-piece transmitters - was built by the Swiss company Brown, Boveri & Cie. The elevator was built by the Swedish company Alimak.
Finally, on May 18, 1974, after more than four years of work, the construction of the radio mast was completed, and on June 22 it was put into operation.
Key Specifications
Now let's take a look at the main technical specifications of the Warsaw radio mast. So what was the design?
The height of the Warsaw radio mast was 646.4 m. This made it at that time the tallest building that ever existed in the world. The total weight of the structure was 420 tons. The base of the structure and its section were in the form of a triangle, the sides of which are 4.8 m. The structure caracas were steel pipes with a diameter of 24.5 cm.
The structure was not an integral structure, but a structure consisting of 86 parts. Each part had a height of 7.5 m. Structural stability was provided by three guy wires in the form of steel insulated cables with a diameter of 5 cm each. The total weight of these braces was 80,000 kg.
In addition, there was an elevator in the building, which was specially manufactured by the Swedish company Alimak. He developed a speed of 21 m / min. In order to rise from the base of the structure to its top, it took about half an hour to spend. However, if desired, it was possible to make the rise with the help of ordinary stairs.
Transmission substation
The substation, where the transmitting part of the structure was located, was 600 meters from the radio mast in a closed building, which had a volume of 17 thousand cubic meters. m. It was here that the heart of the whole structure was located - two transmitters made by the company from Switzerland Brown, Boveri & Cie. Each of them had a capacity of 1 MW. In order to synchronize the frequency of both transmitters as accurately as possible, an atomic clock was used.
A separate power station was built to power transmitters with an electric power consumption of 6 MW.
Operation of the radio mast
The Warsaw radio mast received the official name "Broadcasting Center in Konstantinov." It was intended to transmit a radio signal over long distances. She successfully coped with this task for 17 years. With its signal, it covered not only the territory of Poland, but also all of Europe. Polish radio could even be listened to in North Africa and North America.
The uniqueness of the design was that this was the only half-wave radio mast in the world for long waves. Actually, since then, similar devices are no longer installed.
The radio mast was used by the Warsaw State Radio and Television Company. With the help of this design, the "First Program of Polish Radio" was broadcast, or in another way - "Program 1 PR". Its unofficial name was โUnitโ.
Structural collapse
A complete surprise for everyone was the fact that the Warsaw radio mast fell. The collapse occurred in the first half of August 1991. This happened during the replacement of one of the braces. The design was skewed, the steel pipes moved from the set point, the radio point bent, and then it was destroyed right in the middle. In this case, the upper part fell near the base, and the lower half - in the opposite direction. This version is fully confirmed by the building architect Jan Polyak.
The collapse of the gigantic construction did without tragedies, there were no casualties among people.
Crash reasons
What are the reasons for the collapse of the Warsaw radio mast? The failure of the structure is without a doubt a consequence of the mistake made by the workers when replacing the guy line. All conditions to ensure complete safety were not properly observed. Experts considered the approved plan to replace the guy wires sufficient to ensure that everything went smoothly.
Another reason for the crash should be called too large a structure. It was they who made the safe replacement of guy wires difficult.
The fate of the radio mast
However, the Polish government was not going to put an end to the radio mast. No one thought that after the fall, this building will never be restored. Immediately, the engineers were entrusted with a plan for the restoration of the structure, which by that time, due to being in a prone position, had managed to acquire in the people the playful nickname of the โlongest tower on Earthโ. Already in April 1992, a recovery plan was ready.
The restoration work itself began in 1995. But on the way to the goal there was an obstacle that no one even thought about. And it did not refer at all to the sphere of financial support or the issue of permits. Residents of the village of Konstantinov, located very close by, opposed the construction of the structure. They argued that radiation caused by the operation of the radio mast negatively affected the health of the villagers, in particular, caused headaches and other ailments. It was also alleged that in the few years before the station was functioning, the villagers began to feel much better. As a result of these protests, the restoration project of the Warsaw radio mast had to be closed forever.
Since August 1991, the Warsaw State Radio and Television Company returned to the operation of the old 335-meter mast for broadcasting purposes. Of course, this significantly narrowed its technical capabilities and coverage area. Until 1995, there was hope that the Warsaw radio mast could be restored. Then the radio companies had to come to terms that this would never happen.
Place of the Warsaw radio mast among other tallest structures on Earth
As mentioned above, for about 17 years (from 1974 to 1991), the Warsaw radio mast was the tallest structure on Earth, with a height of 646.4 meters. Until 1974, the KVLY television and radio mast, located in the city of Blanchard, in the US state of North Dakota , held the championship among the highest structures . The height of this structure is 628.8 meters.
As you can see, the height of the Warsaw mast was less than eighteen meters more, which is not so much for buildings of this magnitude. This fact suggests that such a high radio mast in Poland was built not least in order to break the KVLY record. In this case, the height of the mast was justified not so much by practical necessity, but by a vain desire to be the first. Actually, as we found out earlier, the size of the Warsaw radio mast was one of the reasons for its collapse. Thus, as always, the desire for glory leads to disaster.
Compared to other large buildings, the tallest television tower in the world - Ostankino - was more than 100 meters behind the Warsaw radio mast and had a size of 540 m. True, in 1976 the CN Tower became the tallest tower in Canada the city of Toronto, with a height of 553 m, but still it was 93 meters less than the radio mast in Poland. To date, the tallest television tower in the world - Tokyo Skytree, built in the Japanese capital Tokyo in 2012, however, having a height of 634 meters, it is inferior to about 12 meters to the crushed Polish giant.
The highest skyscrapers of that time - the Willis Tower, built in Chicago in 1973, the New York World Trade Center (1973) and the Empire State Building (1931) had a height of 443.2 m, 417 m and 381 m, which again is much less than the length of the Warsaw radio mast.
After the collapse of the structure in Konstantinov, the palm among the highest structures in the world again returned to KVLY. But the title of the highest ever existing structure, the American mast could not take away. The already crushed Warsaw radio mast owned this title until 2008, when the Burj Khalifa skyscraper was built in the largest city of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai. This building has a height of 828 meters, that is, as much as 182 meters more than the height of the Warsaw giant. To this day, the Burj Khalifa remains the tallest building and structure ever built by man.
General characteristics of the Warsaw radio mast
At one time, the Warsaw radio mast was the tallest building in the world (646.4 m). However, perhaps this was precisely the goal of the engineers during its construction, and not the practical tasks of improving the quality of broadcasting and increasing the coverage area. Just the large size of the mast and caused its collapse.
And what do we have in the bottom line? The construction has been in disrepair for more than a dozen years, and the title of the highest structure of all time was lost in 2008. Already, few people remember this gigantic building, but in time even fewer people will remember it, until the building becomes only the property of statistical reference books.