SECTOR REPORT Ӏ SPECIALISED TRANSPORT


Scottish wind power work


UK based heavy transport specialist Collett and Sons is involved in a wind power project in Scotland. In June 2022 it began delivery of 242 components to construct 22


Enercon E3 wind turbines at Creag Riabhach Wind Farm near Lairg in the North Highlands. These are 67m hub height turbines with blades 57m long. Arriving at the Port of Nigg, the largest open port in the Moray Firth,


the components face a 53-mile journey to the construction site. To survey the route the team undertook a test drive of the route using a 48m trailer complete with a 9m rear projection to simulate the loaded turbine blades. The test drive identifi ed route modifi cations, road widening requirements,


and areas where street furniture needed to be removed and fl ower beds relocated to accommodate the wind turbine oversail. Collett then began transporting the 66 blades, 66 tower sections, 44 stator halves and 22 nacelles, hubs and rotor centres the 53 miles from Inverness to Lairg. Using nine trailers across its fl eet to accommodate the varying components, with cargoes ranging from 31 to 73 tonnes, the team employed super wing carriers, clamp trailers, stepframes and 40ft fl ats to systematically deliver the components in line with the construction schedule. Travel was in convoys of three, and they use each of the trailer’s hydraulic capabilities to ensure a maximum traveling height of 4.95m throughout. On arrival at Creag Riabhach the gradients, the variable weather and the way it affected site conditions, caused Collett to employ additional


traction in the form of a double-drive towing vehicle travelling in front of the delivery convoys for the heaviest of the components. Once operational Creag Riabhach Wind Farm will generate up to 72.6MW of renewable energy to power 36,000 homes.


This included the request for a functionality that enhances safety and stability. In order to keep the centre of


gravity of the load as much as possible in the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, Adams required a lateral compensation feature that would shift the load to the left or right depending on the situation. Tii Scheuerle was able to successfully implement this. Adams also praised the driving characteristics of the RBTS. “The manoeuvrability of the trailing unit combination is very convincing,” he said. “The RBTS negotiates bends that cannot be mastered with a


telescopic semi-trailer without having to remove crash barriers or carry out widening measures.” The lift, of up to two metres


in the free-turning device, is also large enough to accommodate obstacles such as surface unevenness and bumps in the road. This results in fewer approvals from the authorities being needed. For empty runs the RBTS can


Eisele AG moves


with Cometto SPTMs


be shortened to form a semi-trailer combination which meets the European standard dimensions of 2.55 metres wide and less than four metres height. The empty tractor-trailer combination weighs under 40 tonnes, which means that, again, driving without a load requires less approval procedure. “The trend in the industry clearly points to ever more powerful systems with increasingly larger-dimensioned components,” said Adams. “Without a trailing unit system, fleets that specialise in the transport of rotor blades are no longer futureproof.” The Faymonville Group also has new solutions to keep up with the high-speed roll-out of wind power. At Bauma in October 2022


it showed a self-steering trailer combination as well as premiering the BladeMAX1000 rotor blade adapter from its specialist company Cometto. The company does not see 30


or 40-metre blades as in any sense a limit. ‘In road transport of up to 100 metre-long wind turbine blades the future belongs to this flexible concept’, it claims. Blade adapters are specialised


vehicles designed to safely transport wind turbine blades over the last section of the route to the installation site. They hold the blade at the


root end only, at an angle with its tip pointing into the air. The BladeMAX1000 now brings the Cometto range to three, with the BladeMAX650 and BladeMAX800 being the other two variants. The BladeMAX1000 is the strongest of its type on the market with a load capacity of 1000 tonnes.


EXTENDING APPLICATIONS Goldhofer, too, was exhibiting at Bauma with wind-related transport in evidence. Its ‘BLADES plus’ air- suspension trailing dolly has been highly successful as a carrier


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