It’s one thing to build a billboard and something entirely different to maintain access to it. In this Billboard Mastery podcast we’re going to review everything you need to know about getting and keeping access to repair lights, install ads, and keep tabs on your property.
Episode 150: All About Access Transcript
In World War II, many generals spent huge amounts of hours in worry on keeping their troops supplied and how they were going to go ahead and keep a continual flow of ammunition and food going to the soldiers in the field so they could continue on with the war. The logistics of how to move people and parts, it was just as important to the army as where the battles were. This is Frank Rolfe with the Billboard Mastery podcast. We're gonna talk about the logistics of accessing a billboard to keep it serviced, to make sure that you can fix it, that you can go ahead and change out the ads. Now, I once owned a billboard in a very enviable position. It was an I-beam sign on Interstate 30 east of Dallas, and I owned the land underneath it. And you would think, that's great. Oh, my gosh, you own the billboard and the land, you don't have to pay any ground rent, and you know the sign will be there forever. But that billboard had one major flaw. The guy that put the deal together, who built the billboard, who subdivided the land, the parcel underneath it, out, he forgot to leave access. There was no way to get to the property. It had no frontage on the freeway that was accessible. There was no service road, nothing at all. The only way I could get to that sign was through neighboring property. And to get through that neighboring property, I had to forge agreements with them allowing me to get to it. And I was always terrified that one day someone would say, wait a minute, I'm gonna blackmail this guy. I don't have to give him the right to get to that billboard. That's gotta be worth thousands of dollars. I'm gonna tell him, no, you can't get through my property anymore to get to it. And then what would I do? Try and service it from a helicopter?
So access needs to be a key consideration on every billboard that you build or buy, how you're gonna get out to that sign, rain or shine, 365 days a year, when you need to. So the first thing you gotta think about when it comes to access for billboards is that everything that is utilized, not only in building a billboard, but maintaining it is very, very heavy. Now, when you build the sign, obviously you're talking really big equipment, 18-wheelers to carry the metal to the location. Your crane is heavy. Concrete truck is incredibly heavy. But even when you're servicing it later, after it's built, the things are still heavy. The skyhook crane, which is kind of a common device used to get panels on and off signs, they're heavy. So you gotta make sure whatever your route is to the sign can handle that much weight.
Now, in some areas in Texas, for example, in the summer, the ground can get very, very hard. And so you can drive across dirt and things like that. But you're not only gonna be servicing that sign in the summer. In the winter months, if it snows and it rains, then it's possible that that road would be untenable. It'd be too soft, it would just be muddy. So normally just pulling across a field for access is not normally your best choice because most of the big equipment will sink into that field. So what I'm trying to find out is how I can access this thing using typically existing paved surfaces. A billboard that is fronting on a freeway, on a piece of land that is so deep that it goes all the way back to a secondary road, I'm probably gonna come in and access off the secondary road because I have a paved surface there that I can come in on at least. And then I'm gonna try and figure out what path through the land will get me there that can structurally hold up the equipment. And many times I will have to put in my budget to build the billboard, putting in a caliche, which is like a road base, it's a large-sized rock road to hold that weight. This is the same thing that if you see the television shows right now with Billy Bob Thornton out there making oil wells happening in the Permian Basin, same thing they do where they have to build these roads, these access roads to get to their equipment. You also may have to do that for your billboard.
Now, what if your billboard's in a fairly developed area where there are a lot of businesses around it and parking lots and things like that? Once again, I still have to get some form of access to it. But one thing that many people miss out in that case are gates, because often the gate is not wide enough to allow big equipment through. We had that happen many times where you had a property that was fenced with a gate on it and it was all paved, didn't have to worry about things sinking into the ground. But when the equipment got there, the gate wasn't wide enough. The standard car is eight feet wide. Most gates are built for cars. So that gate might be only 10 feet wide, let's say, or nine feet wide. And the problem is gonna be that giant crane, that 18-wheeler, there's no way they're gonna fit through that gate. So you may have to on the front end go ahead and get that gate widened at your own cost because the gate that's there on the day you go to build the sign, it won't let the equipment in, or later when you need to service it, it won't let the equipment in.
So you gotta build into your number perhaps getting through a gate by making the gate wider. And if we have a gate on there, we'll also have to have access by knowing how to unlock the gate. Is there gonna be a chain around it with a big old padlock? Well, I better know what the code number is or I better have the key to it or it won't do me any good, can't get through the gate anyway. Now, in an ideal world, every billboard would be on a paved surface with no fence, no gate. And I've owned many billboards like that. But the world is not always ideal. And even then, how do you get to the property? Do you have to cross through other properties? That can be a concern. Another one is the angles required to move long things through fences and roads because the turning radius of that 18-wheeler is much bigger than the turning radius of your car.
One good rule of thumb when you're looking at buying a sign or building a sign is to have the people who build the sign come out in advance just to make sure that they have the necessary access. On many occasions that saved me because with the large swing needed of the 18-wheeler and coupling down into the small opening of the gate, they were able to tell me in advance what I needed to do to make it possible. Are there some locations, in fact, where you can't service them? And the answer is yes. There are locations where if you cannot find amenable neighbors or there's just nothing to even work from, it can be a problem. I looked one time at building some signs on Interstate 45 south of Dallas, and this is in an area of the Trinity River's floodplain. And the problem was there was no way you could access them. Even though you could probably get the permit, might even get the property owner's approval, it was a thicket, a jungle of all earth that flooded constantly, so soft that you as a 200-pound person would sink up to your ankles in it. You might say, well, you could build a road. It would be so expensive to build a road through that jungle, and you would have to build the longest road because there was no development at all in that whole sector of land.
The bottom line to it is access is very, very important to all signs. The sign is of no value if you can't change out the ads. It's no value if you can't get the light fixtures or light bulbs replaced. So you must always consider access in any deal you look at. This is Frank Rolfe with the Billboard Mastery Podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.