All deliveries to the Wambo wind farm in southern Queensland have stopped as an investigation tries to work out why a truck carrying an oversized piece of turbine became stuck under a bridge last week.
The part itself is now at the wind farm and being checked for damage, according to a statement from Wambo wind farm.
On Friday, a truck driver wedged a piece of turbine under the Mount Crosby Bridge, west of Brisbane, at 2.30am on route to the wind farm being built by Queensland government-owned energy generator Stanwell Corporation and Cubico Sustainable Investments.
While the road under the bridge is open again in both directions, state transport department engineers are still assessing the bridge before it is cleared for reopening, given a significant chunk of the bottom was ripped out by the turbine part.
The Vestas turbine parts were being transported to the project site by logistics company Qube and every oversize delivery to the Wambo project – including the load involved in the accident – is escorted by the Queensland police. All are now investigating what went wrong.
The route is well used for wind farm parts transport, and police suspect the truck driver may have failed to follow its escort up an offramp to avoid the overpass.
What will remain unclear until the investigation is finished is whether the route — which has been used for multiple deliveries until now — will be altered, a process that will add significant extra time and cost in road strengthening and planning.
Cubico and Stanwell Corporation said in a statement they “expect robust assurance” about the root cause of the accident and that remediation is in place before deliveries restart.
“The safe and responsible delivery of turbine components is critical,” it said.
Image: City Watch – Keeping Ipswich Safe!, Facebook
In a statement last week, a Wambo wind farm spokesperson the project operators expected contractors “to uphold the strictest safety and compliance standards”.
“Safety is our highest priority,” they said.
Wambo wind farm is being developed in two stages, with a 252MW first stage well under construction and works for a 254.2MW second stage slated to get underway later this year.
Electricity from the huge project is expected to start powering Queensland homes as early as 2026.
The two stages of the wind farm are backed by a total by $455.8 million from the former Labor Palaszczuk government’s Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Jobs Fund for Stanwell’s 50% share in the project, which may also include a 40MW/200MWh big battery.
As Renew Economy has reported, the 42 Vestas turbines being installed for stage one of Wambo are some of the largest yet installed in Australia, at 247m tall.
Other onsite construction activities are continuing to progress, despite weather interruptions.
