Moorabool Wind Farm

Our largest and proudest
achievement to date - 1400
deliveries in just over one year.

The Moorabool Wind Farm consisted of 104 Goldwind GW136 3.4MW wind turbine generators, situated in Victoria. ARES transported all wind turbine components from the Port of Portland to site, with deliveries taking place over a period of 15 months.

Our Biggest Wind Project to date

The Moorabool project actually consisted of two wind farms: Moorabool North and Moorabool South. ARES were awarded the wind turbine transportation package for both farms by Bollore Logistics.

The sheer quantity of components requiring transport was the main challenge: by the end of the project we had received, handled and transported 520 tower sections (some up to 101 tons in weight), 312 68m-long blades and various other components for a total of 1400 deliveries.

Congestion, Communication, Coordination

As if having to manage 104 turbines’ worth of components wasn’t enough, another Goldwind project was being brought into the same port, consisting of another 149 wind turbines! This made for an extremely busy port area, with cargo storage split between two separate areas of Geelong Port. Other resources also had to be shared between projects, including cranes, police escorts and rail crossing supervision.

Key to overcoming the hurdles was the strong communication and leadership skills of the Ares team, liaising closely with external stakeholders, the client, and Goldwind Australia to ensure both projects could operate smoothly simultaneously. 

Our Biggest Wind Project to date

The Moorabool project actually consisted of two wind farms: Moorabool North and Moorabool South. ARES were awarded the wind turbine transportation package for both farms by Bollore Logistics.

The sheer quantity of components requiring transport was the main challenge: by the end of the project we had received, handled and transported 520 tower sections (some up to 101 tons in weight), 312 68m-long blades and various other components for a total of 1400 deliveries.

Congestion, Communication, Coordination

As if having to manage 104 turbines’ worth of components wasn’t enough, another Goldwind project was being brought into the same port, consisting of another 149 wind turbines! This made for an extremely busy port area, with cargo storage split between two separate areas of Geelong Port. Other resources also had to be shared between projects, including cranes, police escorts and rail crossing supervision.

Key to overcoming the hurdles was the strong communication and leadership skills of the Ares team, liaising closely with external stakeholders, the client, and Goldwind Australia to ensure both projects could operate smoothly simultaneously. 

BIG Numbers

This is a project where the statistics really tell a story.

0

Goldwind Wind Turbines 

Each turbine stands 169m tall (base to tip), has 5 tower sections and produces 3.4MW of green power.

0

Blade Length

This is equivalent to the height of a 15 to 20 storey building – and we transported 312 of them.

0

Heaviest Component

This was the tower base (or door) section, 4.65m in diameter, which we carried on our 9-row platform.

0

Total Deliveries

These include turbine components, towers, blades, transformers and containers.

The Route

Short and Sweet

Situated only 55km away from the Port of Geelong, Moorabool was ideally located for easy transport of components. The tricky aspect was navigating out of the metro area of Geelong and getting over the Brisbane Ranges at Anakie.

Due to their length, the blades had to take a longer route via the Princes Fwy and Melton.  The tower sections and other components could take the direct route via Anakie.

Living with Curfews

One By One, Please

With so many oversized components being delivered out of the Port of Geelong at the same time, special arrangements had to be made to minimise the impact to local traffic – even in the middle of the night during curfew hours.

ARES were given a 2- to 3-hour window each night to depart Geelong. Trucks were allotted departure time slots within this window in 15-minute staggered intervals. This ensured traffic would not be held up by consecutive deliveries, and also helped keep the V/Line rail crossing in North Geelong free of congestion.

The Route

Short and Sweet

Situated only 55km away from the Port of Geelong, Moorabool was ideally located for easy transport of components. The tricky aspect was navigating out of the metro area of Geelong and getting over the Brisbane Ranges at Anakie.

Due to their length, the blades had to take a longer route via the Princes Fwy and Melton.  The tower sections and other components could take the direct route via Anakie.

Living with Curfews

One By One, Please

With so many oversized components being delivered out of the Port of Geelong at the same time, special arrangements had to be made to minimise the impact to local traffic – even in the middle of the night during curfew hours.

ARES were given a 2- to 3-hour window each night to depart Geelong. Trucks were allotted departure time slots within this window in 15-minute staggered intervals. This ensured traffic would not be held up by consecutive deliveries, and also helped keep the V/Line rail crossing in North Geelong free of congestion.

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

Bollore Logistics worked with Ares for the delivery of the 104 WTG Moorabool Wind Farm in rural Victoria.  At all times Bollore found Ares to be technically and operationally innovative, highly competitive – providing genuine value for money, totally reliable and compliant with the highest HSE standards.  We look forward to working together with Ares again in the future and we would not hesitate to recommend them for any difficult heavy haulage projects.

Mark Norman – Project Manager, Bollore Logistics
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