An oversize convoy of wind farm bits and pieces for the Meridian wind farm at Te Uku came to a sudden halt on State Highway 23 after leaving Whatawhata at 9am on this morning (Thursday 9th). A truck carrying a turbine blade crashed and blocked the busy highway for several hours. The small trailer unit ended up in a ditch and it is suspected that an emergency braking unit is at fault. The Raglan police and fire brigade attended the crash. Traffic was diverted over Old Mountain road. State Highway 23 was reopened to traffic during the afternoon.
While the fragile turbine 49 metre blade looked intact it may have suffered an internal de-lamination failure.
Meridian Energy spokeswoman Claire Shaw said they were still trying to work out what caused the crash.
“The Police Heavy Vehicle Investigation Unit is at the scene working through a process to ascertain exactly what happened and is also conducting safety checks on the vehicle, as per standard practice,“ she said.
This is the 54th blade that had been transported from Auckland to the new wind farm at Te Uku, near Raglan.
“The previous 53 have made it to site safely without incident. This has been a well-planned operation.
“We have a total of 84 blades to go to site and will make a decision as to whether the daily transport schedule will resume tomorrow or later today.”, she said.