Locals Gather to Witness Satellite Dish Removal

By Katie Writer

Last Thursday, the end of Comsat Road was quite a bustling place. Alaska Demolition, AT&T, and New Horizon Telecom had a challenging task in the demolition and then removal of the Communication Satellite Dish that had been a long time fixture in the horizon of the Northern Susitna Valley. The crew of Alaska Demolition had the most challenging job. They strategically attached bundles of explosives to the base of the 300,000 pound, 100 foot wide satellite dish. Other workers set up various cameras on tripods that would capture what would be quite a spectacular event in Talkeetna history. Everyone cleared the area and so began the wait.

Word got out amongst locals that there would be a scheduled explosion at 1 pm on Thursday afternoon. The road closure signs and explosive warnings set up on Comsat Road were like an advertisement for the long planned event. It did not take long for a local crowd of twenty to gather on a nearby hillside and the air was thick with excitement. The explosion happened 14

minutes after 1 pm, sending a loud boom across the Susitna Valley.

Surprisingly, the dish withstood that blast. More work had to be done afterwards to free up the massive satellite dish so that it could then be rotated to the ground, but not until Friday morning. After the removal of heavy steel that had hung up the satellite dish, Steve Alderman of Alaska Demolition fired up his dozer, pulled back the cable and with surreal perfection, the dish slowly and ever so smoothly rotated and smashed to the ground. 

Certain tasks, like falling trees and blasting satellite dishes, happen easier when there is not a big crowd.