Wind Turbine Groundworks & Site Infrastructure
Preparing the site for the development of your wind project is a critical stage of the process.
Before work commences on site you may require a ground investigation study which could include a combination of boreholes, trial pits and/or soil analysis.
One of the most important factors to consider is the bearing strata of the ground at the level of the proposed wind turbine foundation.
Based on these results, a unique foundation design for your wind turbine may be required.
WindCare is able to offer this service through a third party civil and structural engineering company we have successfully worked alongside for many years and who hold all the necessary PI insurance to cover all the design work they do.
It is essential for the success of your wind turbine development that the groundworks are carried out by an experienced team of civil engineers.
This is one area where a some people think they can save money by either doing the works themselves, or getting a local builder to come in and give them a hand.
In our experience this is a false economy and opens the client up to additional risks which do not justify any short-term savings they may or may not find.
That said, if a client really wants to do all or part of the groundworks themselves (and understands the risks of doing so) we will of course continue to work around them for the remainder of the project.
WindCare has a dedicated groundworks team doing nothing apart from wind turbine foundations and have successfully completed over 100 bases to date – many of which were bespoke ‘design and build’ projects.
A typical groundworks job for a sub-500kW wind turbine will involve the following stages:
- Construction of access track and crane pad
- Excavation of turbine base and cable trench
- Stoning and levelling base
- Pouring and levelling blinding concrete
- Building steels
- Installation of holding down assembly / foundation can
- Installation of lightening protection, ducting and services
- Foundation sign-off before concrete is poured
- Casting structural concrete
- Sanding cable trench, laying cable and backfilling trench and turbine foundation
- Construction of sub-station foundation including ducting to DNO specification
WindCare will design, project manage and deliver a groundworks package for your wind project that meets the particular turbine manufacturer’s requirements as well as specifics relating to the site the turbine will sit on.
Whether you want us to act as principle contractor on a turn-key basis or want to do an element of the work yourself (maybe using your own contractor), it is entirely up to you.
Get in touch to discuss your requirements.
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