Project Challenges
The terrain was the defining problem: winding, undulating hills with gradients of up to 20% that needed a tow train to beat, plus loads up to 57m long threaded around the towns of Hamilton and Ararat, and shared port storage to keep in order.
Steep, winding terrain
The terrain at Crowlands was especially tricky, with winding and undulating hills and road gradients of up to 20%. To get the larger loads up, Ares brought in the heavy duty BIGFOOT tow truck, and for the steepest sections added a Moxy dump truck to form a three-truck tow train that could navigate to the top.
Very long loads
The top tower section was the longest Ares had ever transported, needing special bookend trailers. The 36m mid tower sections were another standout: on the bookend trailers the truck and trailer combination reached 57m, even longer than the blade trailers, so special care was needed around the large towns of Hamilton and Ararat to avoid damage to cargo and road infrastructure.
Shared port storage
Crowlands and Murra Warra were both delivered out of the Port of Portland and had to share storage space, around 100 turbines’ worth of components between them. Everything had to be segregated by type and project, some stored berthside and the rest sent to the nearby storage area in Portland.