Reinforced roads needed at wind farm

A massive wind farm project just south of Glasgow, Scotland, eventually will have 140 2.3-megawatt turbines in operation. But before the turbines could be erected, construction roads over peaty soils had to be built.

“We lay a geotextile mat and geogrid reinforcements across the peat before creating the road,” said Anthony Windle, project manager for the principal contractor on the job. A 600mm layer of graded rock is added to the geotextile/geogrid combo to shore up the structure, topped by 200mm of crushed rock.

When completed in the summer of 2009, the Whitelee Wind Farm is projected to provide around 180,000 homes with electricity.