Ten cranes, 111 turbines: Maxim’s Caney River wind job

The project

Caney River, near Howard, Kansas, is a 200 MW wind farm developed by Trade Wind Energy and owned by Enel Green Power, generating enough electricity for more than 70,000 households. Balfour Wind Energy managed construction and retained Maxim Crane Works for all crane requirements. Work started in July 2011 and finished seven months later, in the first quarter of 2012, at a cost of roughly $350 million for 111 turbines rated at 1.8 MW each.

Crane spread

Maxim supplied ten machines: seven crawlers and three 100-ton rough terrain cranes. The crawler fleet was led by two 825-ton Manitowoc 18000s for the main erection work, backed by a 300-ton Manitowoc 2250, two 275-ton Manitowoc 999s and two 100-ton Link-Belt 218HSLs for component handling and assembly. All the equipment was supplied operated and maintained.

The pairing is a familiar one on US wind sites of that period — a heavy crawler on nacelle and blade lifts, with mid-size crawlers and rough terrains feeding it — but doing it 111 times inside seven months puts the emphasis on walk times, weather windows and crane availability rather than on peak capacity.

Result

More than 30,000 labour hours were worked without a major incident. Alongside the equipment, Maxim provided planning and engineering support for the duration of the contract.