If you have a 190,000-pound, ultra-expensive item to deliver, what are your first objectives?
Go slowly and carefully.
That’s how the transport company, Guy M. Turner Inc. of Covington, approached its mission over the past weekend.
The item was the massive transformer for the 1,380-acre solar farm, known as the Timberland Solar Project, originally started by Consolidated Edison, but now owned by RWE. The German firm purchased Con Ed’s “clean-energy” projects.
Delivery of the equipment was completed Nov. 5.
The transformer arrived from Mexico to a rail siding in Colbert. From there, it was offloaded onto a series of connected heavy-duty trailers that were pulled by a truck.
According to Turner’s Bobby Daniel, the measurement from the truck’s bumper to the back was 215 feet for the 28-mile journey to Saxon-Mattox Road in the Goose Pond community.
The route was from Colbert to Comer on Highway 72, to Lexington on Highway 22 and then Highway 77 toward Elberton to Saxton-Mattox Road.
Before the load reached the end of the asphalt, the equipment was transferred to a self-propelled series of connected trailers, measuring about 90-feet long. From the front of the mobile apparatus, Daniel guided the load down several miles of dirt road to the site.
Daniel said 12 axles supported 96 tires. That 300,000-pound weight had to cross a new $1 million-plus bridge that Con Ed installed over Goose Pond Creek last year.
Michael Wolk of HLI Rail & Rigging, LLC of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, oversaw the operation.
At Monday’s county commission meeting, Jeff Sharp, Oglethorpe County’s code compliance officer, said the first phase of the operation — 50 megawatts — is reported to be completed by January. The balance is projected to be finished next year.
Since Con Ed’s purchase of the Goose Pond property, another 2,030 acres has been added for potential expansion.