Gloucester Wind Turbine Update

On Friday, we were expecting that another section would be raised and Saturday the last section with the nacelle would follow. However there was a problem with a sensor on the crane, so the boom had to be laid down again and adjustments had to be made.

When I arrived at the job site on Saturday, the linemen were pulling the power lines.

The riggers were taking care of the 5 ton block and tackle.

The boom brought erect again.

It’s hard to fathom but they are making a adjustment on this million pound crane with a half-inch box wrench.

Many measurements were made to make sure everything is right and the crane became certified for the job. We were talking with one of the riggers, the crane will be running at 94% capacity! Hokey smoke, Bullwinkle, this lattice boom crawler crane has a 500 ton capacity!

The team made the decision to not make a lift on Saturday. Here’s the deal. We have hurricane Sandy coming up the coast. We expect to get tropical storm winds. The tower will be fine at three sections.

So on Saturday, preparations were being made to the tower to keep progress moving. Here one of the construction workers takes a load up to the tower site.

The trailers holding the blades down were anchored with concrete blocks. Rather be safe than sorry! What’s with the blue tarp? I’ll tell you later.

That’s were I left it on Saturday. We expect the crew to be back to work today. Not much will be happening on the outside. They will be tensioning hardware in the tower.

Finally, we have been happy to have a lot of folks stopping by to check out the site. It is really a big deal in town. Friday we hosted a school group. Here on Saturday are a couple of folks getting some daddy-daughter time.

For those new to Shooting My Universe, you can view all of the Applied Materials wind turbine at by clicking the wind turbine label below this post. This is the second largest wind turbine in North America and at 2.5Mwatts, it is the largest on the east coast (so they tell me!).