Site Work on New York State Wind Farm Expected to Begin Next Week

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Construction on the Maple Ridge Wind Farm is scheduled to begin late next week, but don't expect to see turbine parts coming through the north country for a few months.

LOWVILLE, New York — Construction on the Maple Ridge Wind Farm is scheduled to begin late next week, but don't expect to see turbine parts coming through the north country for a few months.


Site work on the project is to begin April 30, while delivery of the turbine equipment is scheduled to start in the first week of August, said construction manager Phillip L. "Larry" Mills of Zilkha Renewable Energy, Houston, Texas.


Mr. Mills's company and PPM Energy of Portland, Ore., plan to construct jointly a 195-turbine wind farm in the Lewis County towns of Martinsburg, Harrisburg and Lowville. The 320-megawatt wind farm will be the largest in the eastern United States.


The $380 million project, which will span about 21,000 acres, also includes a 10.3-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line in the towns of Martinsburg and Watson with substations on each end, a buried and above-ground, 34.5-kilovolt electrical connection system, two meteorological towers and a system of gravel access roads.


After this year's 15,000-acre first phase of the project, 120 of the 1.65-megawatt turbines are to be operational. The remainder of the towers are to be installed in 2006.


Portions of the wind farm could begin producing electricity in early to mid- November, Mr. Mills said, although all 120 turbines probably won't be operational until December.


Workers are now handling preconstruction activities like drilling, soil analysis, surveying and silt fencing, Mr. Mills said. Over the next couple of weeks, project managers and contractors will set up a base of operations off Eagle Factory Road in the town of Lowville, although the project office here on North State Street will be used as well.


Once construction commences, Mr. Mills said, separate crews will begin working on construction of roads, tower foundations and the transmission line.


"We'll have a lot of things that will go on at the same time," he said.


Zilkha and PPM have chosen three primary contractors -- all with wind farm construction experience -- to handle the project: D.H. Blattner and Sons Inc. of Minnesota for the road work and civil construction, Alliant Energy of Wisconsin for the electrical work and The Vestas Group of Denmark -- the Scandanavian country, not the Lewis County town -- for supplying and installing the turbines.


Those companies are hiring several in-state companies, including Delaney Construction Corp. of Mayfield, as subcontractors, Mr. Mills said. However, he was unsure of how many subcontractors will be involved.


Tetra Tech EC Inc. of Saratoga Springs has also been hired to handle the project's permitting and environmental requirements and to serve as environmental consultant to the contractors, Mr. Mills said.


That firm on Monday distributed a construction "notice of intent" -- including maps showing the proposed turbine sites and transmission line route -- to state, federal and local officials, emergency personnel and local media outlets and in various public places throughout the four affected towns. Such notice is required as part of the permitting process.


Copies of the notice were posted in area libraries, post offices, grocery stores, town halls, the County Courthouse and the Lowville American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, said Anntonette Z. Alberti, principal regulatory specialist with Tetra Tech.


State permits also require the distribution of weekly project updates -- outlining expected work over the following two weeks -- to local governmental and emergency management officials, she said.


A transportation route for the turbine parts must still be determined by Vestas, a hauling company, and state Department of Transportation officials, Mr. Mills said.


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