Gerbrandy Tower

Gerbrandy Tower
Gerbrandy Tower
General information
Type	Partially guyed tower
Location	IJsselstein, Netherlands
Coordinates	52°0′36.24″N 5°3′12.87″E / 52.0100667°N 5.0535750°E / 52.0100667; 5.0535750Coordinates: 52°0′36.24″N 5°3′12.87″E / 52.0100667°N 5.0535750°E / 52.0100667; 5.0535750
Completed	1961
Height	366.8 m (1,203.41 ft)

The tower at Christmas

The Gerbrandy Tower (Dutch: Gerbrandytoren) is a tower in IJsselstein, the Netherlands. It was built in 1961.

Description

The Gerbrandy Tower is used for directional radio services and for FM- and TV-broadcasting. The Gerbrandy Tower consists of a concrete tower with a height of 100 meters on which a guyed aerial mast is mounted. Its total height was originally 382.5 meters, but in 1987 it was reduced to 375 meters.

On August 2, 2007 its analog antenna was replaced by a digital one reducing its height by another 9 meters. Its height is now 366.8 meters.

This tower type is a partially guyed tower, which combines a lower free standing tower antennas with an upper guyed mast. If the structure is counted as a tower, it is the tallest tower in Western Europe. The Gerbrandy Tower is not the only tower which consists of a concrete tower on which a guyed mast is set. There is one similar but smaller tower with the same structure in the Netherlands, the radio tower of Zendstation Smilde, which consisted of an 80 meter high concrete tower, on which a 223.5 meter high guyed mast was mounted. This structure collapsed after a fire on July 15th, 2011. Rebuilding of that tower started in late 2011 and is planned to be complete around August 2012; the replacement structure will also be a partially guyed tower.

Largest Christmas tree

During the Christmas season lamps are put on and make the tower the biggest Christmas tree in the world. There were plans to limit these decorations to once every five years, but sponsoring has allowed the seasonal lighting to be put up every year so far. However, during Christmas 2011 there were no decorations on the mast. Due to the repairs after the fire on July 15, 2011, the lights were limited to a white light on the top and searchlights at the base.

Naming

The tower is named after Pieter Gerbrandy, Prime Minister of the Netherlands during World War Two.

Nearby, there is another remarkable antenna: the KNMI-mast Cabauw, a mast used for meteorological measurements.

Another nearby antenna, the 196m high mediumwave transmitter Lopik, was demolished on September 4th, 2015.

Fires in Dutch TV masts

On July 15th, 2011 there was a small fire in the Gerbrandy tower. Only hours later, a similar tower in Smilde caught fire and collapsed, after which all transmitters in the Gerbrandy tower were shut down as a precaution, leaving large parts of the Netherlands without FM-radio and digital TV (DVB-T) reception.

Owner

The ownership of the tower is complex: the concrete main structure is owned by Alticom: a company established in 2007 that bought many assets from KPN. Alticom was part of the European TDG Group, but in June 2011 it was announced that all shares in Alticom were acquired by investment company Infracapital^[1] who are the infrastructure specialists of Prudential plc.

Alticom is the owner of the concrete base and the first three meters of ground around this base. The metal mast on top of the structure is owned by NOVEC, which is a subsidiary of the electricity transmission operator TenneT. And the ground on which the tower is built, excluding the first three meters around the base, is (still) owned by KPN.^[2]

Sources

↑ Press-release Infracapital buys Alticom, 8 June, 2011, retrieved 27 July, 2011
↑ Report about working safely in Radio and TV-masts: Veilig werken op hoog nivo (Dutch), 8 August, 2007, retrieved 25 July, 2011

External links

Records
Preceded by Eiffel Tower 312.3 m (1,025 ft)	Tallest structure in EU 382.5 m (1,255 ft) 1961–1973	Succeeded by Belmont transmitting station 387.5 m (1,271 ft)

Tallest buildings in the Netherlands

Church towers	Sint Cunerachurch (Rhenen) (81.8 m) Grote of Sint-Jacobskerk (The Hague) (92.5) Sint Eusebiuschurch (Arnhem) (93 m) Sint Jacobuschurch (The Hague) (94 m) Martinichurch (Doesburg) (94 m) Martinitower (Groningen) (96.8 m) Great Church (Breda) (97.3 m) Sint Vituschurch (Hilversum) (98.3 m) Onze Lieve Vrouwetower (Amersfoort) (98.3 m) New Church (Delft) (108.75 m) Domtower (Utrecht) (112.32 m)

Towers	Euromast (186 m) Mediumwave transmitter Lopik (192 m) Mediumwave transmitter Flevoland (195 m) KPN-Zendmast Hilversum (196 m) KPN-Zendmast Waalhaven (199 m) Zendmast Wieringermeer (204.5 m) KNMI-mast Cabauw (213 m) Zendstation Smilde (303.5 m) Gerbrandytoren Lopik (366.8 m)

Skyscrapers	World Port Center (Rotterdam) (123 m) Nieuwbouw Erasmus Medisch Centrum (Rotterdam) (125 m) The Red Apple (Rotterdam) (124 m) Millennium Tower (Rotterdam) (131 m) De Kroon (The Hague) (132 m) Het Strijkijzer (The Hague) (132 m) Rembrandt tower (Amsterdam) (135 m) Hoftoren (The Hague) (142 m) Westpoint (Tilburg) (142 m) City Tower (The Hague) (142 m) Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (The Hague) (146 m) Ministry of Security and Justice (The Hague) (146 m) De Rotterdam (Rotterdam) (149 m) Delftse Poort (Rotterdam) (151 m) Montevideo (Rotterdam) (152 m) New Orleans (Rotterdam) (158 m) Maastoren (Rotterdam) (165 m)

Supertall structures

Italics indicate structures under construction

Towers	Almaty Tower Aspire Tower Bailong Elevator Baku TV Tower Berliner Fernsehturm Canton Tower China Central Radio & TV Tower CN Tower Colombo Lotus Tower Eiffel Tower Emley Moor transmitting station Europaturm Fazilka TV Tower Gerbrandy Tower Jaisalmer TV Tower Jiangsu Nanjing Broadcast Television Tower Katanga TV Tower KCTV Tower Kiev TV Tower Kuala Lumpur Tower Liaoning Broadcast and TV Tower Liberation Tower Long Ta Macau Tower Milad Tower Mumbai Television Tower Oriental Pearl Tower Ostankino Tower Pitampura TV Tower Rameswaram TV Tower Riga Radio and TV Tower Saint Petersburg TV Tower Samatra TV Tower Sint-Pieters-Leeuw Tower Sky Tower Stratosphere Las Vegas Sydney Tower Taipei 101 Tallinn TV Tower Tashkent Tower Tbilisi TV Broadcasting Tower Tianjin Radio and Television Tower Tokyo Skytree Tokyo Tower Tortoise Mountain TV Tower Turner Broadcasting tower Vilnius TV Tower Vinnytsia TV Tower West Pearl Tower WHDH-TV tower WITI TV Tower WSB-TV tower Yerevan TV Tower Zhongyuan Tower

Bridges	Millau Viaduct (343 m) Russky Bridge (321 m) Sutong Yangtze River Bridge (306 m)

Dams	Jinping-I Dam (305 m) Nurek Dam (300 m) Xiaowan Dam (292 m) Grande Dixence Dam (285 m) Inguri Dam (271 m)

Electricity pylons	Bali–Java Powerline (376 m) Zhoushan Island Overhead Powerline Tie (370 m) Yangtze River power line crossings (346.5 m)

Oil platforms	Petronius (610 m) Baldpate Platform (579.7 m) Bullwinkle (529.1 m) Troll A platform (472 m) Gullfaks C (380 m)

Tallest structures Tallest buildings and structures Tallest freestanding structures

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