Kyiv TV Tower

The Kyiv TV Tower (Ukrainian: Телевізійна вежа, romanized: Televiziyna vezha) is a 385 m-high (1,263 ft) lattice steel tower built in 1973 in Kyiv, Ukraine, for radio and television broadcasting. It is the second tallest freestanding lattice tower in the world after the Tokyo Sky Tree. The tower in Oranzhereina Street is not open to the public.

Kyiv Television Tower
Київська телевежа
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Steel lattice television tower
Location	Kyiv, Ukraine
Coordinates	50°28′16″N 30°27′12″E
Construction started	1968
Completed	1973
Opening	1973
Height	385 m (1,263 ft)
Technical details
Lifts/elevators	2

Construction began in 1968 and finished in 1973 at a cost of approximately $12 million. Made of steel pipe of various diameters and thicknesses, the structure weighs 2,700 metric tons (2,700 long tons; 3,000 short tons). The central pipe, or core, where the elevator is located, is 4 meters (13 ft) in diameter and made of pipe that is 12 mm thick. It sits on a four-legged base that is about 100 meters (330 ft) meters tall. Atop the base is an enclosed level which houses microwave transmitting and receiving equipment. At about 200 meters (660 ft) is a second enclosed level that houses television and FM transmitters, as well as a control and maintenance shop. This second level is the elevator's terminus.

The tower is unique in that no mechanical fasteners such as rivets are used in the structure: every joint, pipe and fixture is attached by welding.

The tower was first designed for Moscow, then the Soviet capital. But Moscow authorities preferred a more "solid" type of tower which was eventually built (Ostankino Tower). Later, when Kyiv needed its own tower, the project was reintroduced. The Soviet government ordered the engineers to shorten the tower by almost 30%, so as not to be as tall as the Moscow one.[1][2]