A truck that overturned while transporting a wind turbine has highlighted the difficulties of transporting machinery to renewable energy zones across Australia.
The 60-tonne truck transported a $300,000 68-foot long wind turbine blade along Highland Lakes Road in Apsley, Tasmania in 2019.
The massive vehicle then rolled down an embankment with photos capturing the shocking aftermath showing the vehicle on its side.
Cattle Hill, the company building the wind farm, had already improved some parts of the road, but the huge truck couldn’t make it through the left turn.
Footage of the crash emerged as concerns arose over the feasibility of transporting the materials across the country to renewable energy zones (REZ).
A bridge and railway may need to be demolished so trucks can transport the machines to parts of NSW – with the work costing taxpayers $340 million.
The extraordinary rolling of a 60-ton truck (pictured) carrying a 68-foot $300,000 wind turbine blade in one state has led to repercussions in another state
REZs are the equivalent of modern power plants, combining new renewable energy infrastructure, including generators – such as solar and wind farms – storage – such as batteries and pumped hydropower – and high-voltage transmission infrastructure.
Wind turbine blades up to 90 meters long and seven meters in diameter are to be transported from the Port of Newcastle to renewable energy projects near Dubbo, in central western NSW, and Armidale, in the state’s Northern Tablelands.
Muswellbrook is already being bypassed so trucks can transport the blades to the REZ without having to go through the city’s railroad underpass.
But there’s another potential bump in the road outside of town, and it could mean demolishing the Denman Bridge, which crosses the Hunter River, adding hugely to the overall bill.
Sharon Pope, environmental and planning director at Muswellbrook Council, said there are only two options for getting lorries across the bridge: demolish the bridge to make a larger replacement, or build a second bypass.
The alternative was to let the trucks use local country roads, but they are not designed to support the weight and the repair bills could cost millions more.
That can also be dangerous – as can be seen with the rollover in Tasmania – if the trucks can’t always get through difficult corners safely.
The council had already been approached by several energy companies asking to use local roads, Ms Pope told the council Daily telegram.
Winterbourne Wind Farm aims to move up to 357 turbine blades using oversized vehicles over 18 months.
The municipality believes there are about 20 different companies that want to use the local roads to transport the blades needed by their wind farms in the REZ area.
Denman Bridge (pictured), will have to be demolished and rebuilt at enormous cost, or bypassed
Those vehicles’ ability to negotiate curves is hampered by their sheer size, requiring intersections to be temporarily closed whenever a truck needs to pass through.
Ms Pope said this is a major problem for the council as so many local roads are simply not built to handle this kind of load.
It has raised the question of how municipalities could fund the upgrades needed on those roads.
‘(The power companies) will use the local roads until the Muswellbrook bypass can be completed and it could be 7 to 10 years before that happens, but until then we need some mechanisms on how the different companies would pay for the maintenance of those roads,” she said.
Complicating matters further is the fact that Muswellbrook is not within a REZ, so the area does not benefit economically from the new jobs created by the wind farms.
The council is concerned that it could end up paying a fortune to build and maintain roads that end up not making any money.
“I can only assume that part of the solution includes contributions coming from the various wind farm projects,” Ms Pope said.
‘It is our preference, the national government will come up with a strategic solution to spread the costs of that road improvement.’
NSW Regional Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison (pictured) blamed the previous coalition government for the funding problems
NSW’s Labor government, which came to power in March after 12 years of Liberal National rule, blames the former coalition government for failing to prepare for these issues.
NSW Regional Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison said the new state government is now looking at how the road upgrades will be funded.
“The frustration for me is the ‘how’ should have been done a few years ago when (then Secretary of State) Matt Kean introduced the REZs which require a completely new investment of everything from infrastructure to staff transfer.”
Somehow the roads will have to be improved, otherwise the trail would remain open for rollovers like the one in Tasmania in 2019.