| Work Detail |
Work is progressing on the Wolf Wind Farm in South Africas Eastern Cape, with Concor carrying out the civils balance of the plant—including a design for a steeply inclined concrete road to the site.
The contract, which is being tackled in a consortium with Murray & Roberts company OptiPower for developer Red Rocket, will see Concor building 17 foundation bases for wind turbine generators on a ridge in the Klein Winterhoek mountain range, above the small Boland town of Tulbagh.
Concor Contracts Manager and Lead Project Manager for the consortium, Stephan Nel, explains that the bases are for two sizes of turbine: there will be five 6.2MW Vestas V162 turbines—the largest in South Africa—and a dozen 4.5MWV163 models.
"The foundation bases for V162 turbines measure 22,5 m in diameter, while the V163 foundations are 21,2m," says Nel. "The larger bases will consume over 650m3 of concrete each, with the slightly smaller bases taking almost 600m3."
Concor is conducting more than 180,000 m3 of bulk earthworks for the base excavations and roadways on site—which includes 15km of access road to reach the 17 wind turbines.
A total of 100,000m3 of rock will be blasted during the construction of the project. After cleaning, a concrete lining is applied and specially designed anchor cages of steel reinforcing bar—weighing either 64t or 70t dependent on the base size—are installed,
Project needed roadway leading up to Wolf Wind Farm
Concrete from the batch plant at the foot of the ridge will—like all other wind turbine components and related equipment—have to traverse a steep 18% incline gradient to reach the top of the ridge where the turbines will be located.
He highlights that this challenge required an innovative solution that could be rapidly executed.
"In collaboration with the client, consultants and specialist service providers, we designed a concrete roadway that could be constructed using the slipform method," he says.
"The 1,100m roadway, measuring 7m wide, was completed in January this year, paving the way for the on-schedule execution of the project." |
