Global Specialized Services was recently awarded the Magenta Wind Farm Project and they began making their first deliveries on November 14.
The project came after GSS made a bid for it in the fourth quarter of 2021, and it was awarded in the spring of 2022. This will be GSS’ first project of the year for this specific client, and it’s a big one.
The Magenta Wind Farm is located in Fluvanna, Texas. GSS will be hauling components out of the Port of Aransas, Texas, as well as the Port of Brownsville, Texas. According to Aaron Nirider, Project Manager at GSS, the wind blades will be coming out of the Port of Brownsville, while the towers, nacelles, hubs, and drive trains will be coming out of the Port of Aransas.
Aaron Nirider said that this project is an exciting one, but it will also be a difficult project thanks, in part, to the eleven-part wind towers that will soon be getting erected.
“There are five specific tower sections to these towers,” Nirider stated. “If you’re paying attention to the wind industry, you’ll notice that everything’s getting heavier. So right there, you’re faced with a challenge right off the bat. These blades are 77.5 meters, and just routing them through the state of Texas is a job in itself.”
Luckily, GSS has partnered with the TXDOT to ensure a safe and speedy delivery process.
“We’ve definitely worked hand-in-hand with the Texas Department of Transportation every day for the last four or five months,” Nirider said. “Especially trying to find routes. We realized that we’ve gotta work on this early enough on the front end to make sure we have everything lined up, but you have to understand that in Texas, construction pops up every so often.”
Construction aside, we have sent Scott Miller with GSS to run various route surveys, to determine bump-outs on turns, making sure they can get under and across bridges, and more.
“That’s where our site survey specialist comes in,” Nirider said. “He physically runs the route and notes things like, ‘Even though TXDOT thinks we can make this turn, based on the length of this component, the turning radius and the steering angles of the trailer, we won’t be able to make the turn.’ And that’s when we try to find a different route.”
Nirider said that GSS has two sets of equipment running each component out of the Port of Aransas, and 3-4 sets running the blades out of the Port of Brownsville. There are 11 total components to haul per tower and GSS has a total of 25 different trucks on this project. The entire project is made up of 38 total towers, and GSS is required to complete four towers a week, meaning the projected completion date is sometime in January. It’s a massive project, but the crew at GSS is more than up for the task.
“We’re always in the business of customer service,” Nirider stated. “Especially with projects of this size. We’re always focused on keeping our customers updated with what we’re hearing on our end and just being very transparent with them on what’s going on with our routing, our permits, our start dates, when our trucks can actually be down there. We pride ourselves on being transparent. And we’ve gotten all good feedback from this customer so far. They understand the difficulty of these projects, based on the size of the components.
The client is confident, too. Because GSS has continued to prove itself with projects big and small.
“We’ve got so much experience in our office; in the GSS office itself and through TP&L and all of our other companies,” Nirider said. “I think our customer service makes us the best choice for this project as well. We pride ourselves on customer service and making sure we can do everything in our power to get these components delivered to the site safely and on time.
And that’s exactly why the Magenta Wind Farm is in very, very good hands.
