Turbine crane crash blocks Northumberland country road
Credit: by Brian Daniel | The Journal | December 12, 2012 | www.journallive.co.uk ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
A crane heading for the site of a Northumberland wind farm blocked a nearby road after hitting ice.
The crane was making its way to land where developer Infinis is set to put up six turbines at Wingates. However, it got into difficulties at sometime before 8am yesterday when it became stuck on the icy road.
The vehicle is then thought to have attempted to continue its journey when its front end left the road, causing the rear end to block the carriageway.
The crane eventually reached its destination.
John Thompson, of the Wingates Not Wind Farms action group, last night claimed the crane had blocked the road for some time, forcing residents and school transport heading to Nunnykirk to take a diversion of three to four miles on icy roads via Netherwitton.
Mr Thompson said the crane should have had a police escort.
He said: “I have a feeling that there are going to be a few unhappy people as everyone heading out of the village will have to take a major detour on even more untreated roads, as will all of the school taxis and mini buses.
“We still have a situation today where a large vehicle, despite being aware of the road conditions, has attempted to drive down an ice-covered steep incline on a narrow road.
“If another vehicle had been coming in the opposite direction the consequences could have been fatal.”
Infinis last night claimed the road had only been partially blocked for 10 to 15 minutes.
The company, Northumberland County Council and Northumbria Police confirmed the developer did not need an escort for a crane. Infinis and the council revealed that the firm has agreed to grit access roads to its site where appropriate in future.
The developer was due to begin taking delivery of turbine parts at the site yesterday.
It had carried out an abnormal load test delivery on Monday, with a police escort.
The test delivery had been postponed from last week due to bad weather.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Contributions |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=30926 ]
