October 12, 2007
England
England
Weeks of disruption are looming large for villagers as 26 wind turbines get set to make their long-winding journey to their final resting place above Edenfield.
Vehicles will be banned from parking in Market Street while the Scout Moor turbines are transported at a snail’s pace through the village, with a police escort, on specially-adapted lorries.
Lancashire County Council has had to rip up a street light, a traffic signal pole and stop line at the junction of Blackburn Road and Burnley Road and lower bollards at the mini-roundabout on Market Street to avoid any collisions.
Peel Wind Power Ltd, the green energy arm of Peel Holdings, has revealed that the propellers and turbine columns will be delivered at a rate of two per week, starting early next month.
It is understood the lorries will travel up the M66 before coming off at the roundabout near the Woolpack in Haslingden. They will then go back on themselves down Manchester Road, through Edenfield towards Turn Village before turning into a widened quarry road leading to the windfarm site.
The large-scale operation will last 13 weeks before all the turbines – each two thirds the height of Blackpool Tower – are delivered to the moors, where the sections will be pieced together and erected by large cranes.
According to Peel Wind Power’s website, the first turbine will be arriving in early November. The concrete bases where the columns will stand and the access roads to them are already completed.
There will be no activity over Christmas and New Year, but Peel officials say they are confident that, barring severe weather, all the turbines, which will spread across the landscape between Scout Moor and Knowl Hill, will be in place by next March.
Peel officials say each lorry will have special telescopic trailers so that they can be shortened for the journey back to Manchester to reduce disruption.
A county council spokesman said: ‘The highway works are costing about £46,000 which will be paid for by the developer. This includes the work that has already been done and the work that will be done after the turbines have been delivered.’
Councillor Anne Cheetham said: ‘There are a great number of people who park on Market Street because of the type of housing we have. Nobody has been given a date or a schedule of the movements. If cars have to be off the road, they have to be given an opportunity to find somewhere else to park. This upheaval will go on for weeks and is going to affect the lives of everyone living in Edenfield.’
Peel Wind Power Ltd says the aim is to have full generation of wind power by June next year. When all the turbines are rotating to maximum capacity, they will pump enough electricity into the national grid to power around 40,000 homes.
By Lisa Kenyon
12 October 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/10/12/turbines-big-entrance/