Delivery of wind turbine components at the Beaver Creek Wind Park in Junction Township is expected to begin the week of Aug. 21.
The MidAmerican project has been on schedule since work began in the spring. County zoning coordinator Chuck Wenthold and the county secondary roads department receives weekly updates from MidAmerican. The project is ahead of schedule, Wenthold said.
Hamilton Redi-Mix of Jefferson provided the concrete for the substation. | GCNO photo
The transformer is in place at a substation under construction on County Road E-26 just west of Highway 169 in Boone County. Routing of the transformer had been a concern for the secondary roads department because of its extreme weight, but the final route used only state roads.
Wenthold told the supervisors Monday that the roads for all turbine sites – 41 in Greene County and 44 in Boone County – have been cut in. Rock has been laid on the roads and 19 or 20 of the footings are poured and already backfilled. Crews are now working on the pads on which the huge cranes will sit as the turbine towers are erected.
Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis has the contract for the concrete work. The company built a temporary cement plant at the intersection of County Road E-18 and P-46 in Junction Township. Strength requirements for strict, and the company tests samples for strength at three, seven, 14, 28 |and 60 days. During the extremely hot weather the concrete crews started their work day at 4 am, according to Wenthold.
Wenthold said five towers will be erected the week of Aug. 21, and then 10 towers in the following weeks until the project is finished.
The project had no reportable accidents in its first 50 days. “They’re very safety aware,” Wenthold said.
Board chair John Muir called it “an impressive operation.
MidAmerican Energy shares a video showing the entire construction process.
