The towers for the Yaloak Wind Farm were sourced from Ottoway Engineering in Whyalla – some 1,100km from site.  This required police escorts in SA before crossing over into Victoria.  One of the biggest challenges was 40km of corrugated road used to bypass the township of Port Augusta.  This bypass is known as ‘Yorkey’s Crossing’ and notorious for shaking equipment to pieces.  With care and patience, all towers were delivered to site without damage.

At the time of arrival into Geelong, the Port had other works requiring the facility.  This meant that there was a very small window to get the cargo discharged from the vessel and delivered to site.  Once discharged, Ares had only 14 days to clear the Port of the 14 turbines which was no easy feat.  Working both day and night shifts, the cargo was cleared within the allocated time.

The shortest distance from the Port of Geelong to the Yaloak wind farm site is around 60km, but due to the size of the cargo, particularly the blades, the transport route was significantly longer. Components had to avoid the Geelong metro area by looping around the south, then take the Princes Fwy towards Melbourne. They then finally started heading in the right direction on the Western Fwy before turning south at Ballan and arriving at site shortly thereafter.

The project was the first time Ares used bookends as a solution to overcome length and height constraints. The Trail King bookend trailers specially procured for this purpose were put to use, allowing tower sections to travel closer to the ground.  This avoided any modifications to powerlines and other overhead infrastructure, saving the client time and money.