Jones Bros Civil Engineering UK is on schedule with the construction of SSE’s 173MW Clyde 2 wind farm in southwest Scotland, despite having to build an extra large turbine base because of a geological fault.
Jones Bros, which is delivering balance of plant as part of a joint venture with the project’s civil contractor Balfour Beatty, said it had to work round the clock to create a turbine base 24 metres in diameter and five metres deep.
It added that concrete had to be continually poured for 15 hours using the company’s Simex concrete batching plant.
Jones Bros project manager Garod Evans said: “The geological fault was discovered when we began excavating the earth to put the crane pad in place.
“Working to a design provided by SSE, we poured concrete and reinforcements continually for 15 hours, with two shifts working on it. It is probably the biggest turbine base we have ever built.
“We now have just eight turbine bases to complete and the turbines themselves have begun arriving at the first three arrays of bases.”
The first of 54 Siemens turbines started to go up last week, while 90% of the preparation work for the project is now complete.
Clyde 2 will be fully operational in the second half of 2017.
Image: first turbine rising at Clyde 2 (SSE)
