Wind turbine propellers awaiting offloading on a ship at Northport. Photo / Chris Nathan
Massive turbine components for Mercury NZ’s $287 million Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm have arrived at Northport and will be transported at night over the coming months via local roads and highways to the project site near Dargaville.
The parts, some of which stretch to nearly 80m long, will be moved on specialist transporters in tightly controlled convoys late at night and into the early morning to avoid disrupting daily commuter traffic.
The first delivery is expected to take place overnight on Monday. Multiple deliveries will be made until the end of May.
The 107km route, expected to take four to six hours, has been meticulously planned and rehearsed. Each oversized load will travel from Northport to State Highway 15, onto State Highway 1 through Whangārei, west along State Highway 14 to Dargaville, and finally northwest on State Highway 12 to the Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm site, where there will be separate entry and exit points.
Transporters will remain at the site after each delivery and won’t return to Northport until after 9.30am, again to minimise congestion.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi - Northland said the convoys would include pilot vehicles and traffic management crews. Because of their sheer size, the vehicles needed significantly more space than normal traffic, might travel slowly, and often required wide turning arcs or might block parts of the road while manoeuvring. Pilot vehicles would lead and follow each load to manage movements and keep everyone safe.
Road users who encounter convoys will likely see enormous wind-turbine tower sections, blades and other major components on the transporters.
In total, more than 130 oversized loads will make the journey from the port to the site, including 60 tower sections, 36 nearly 80m blades, and 12 heavy nacelles (streamlined engine casings), hubs and drive trains, plus about 40 containers of tools and spare parts.
The tower parts alone show the scale of the work: five sections per turbine, from squat 12.7m base sections weighing 79 tonnes to 30m top sections weighing over 60 tonnes. Mid‑tower sections, some more than 29m long, tip the scales at up to 84 tonnes.
NZTA advises motorists who see the oversized loads to:
- watch for pilot vehicles and “Oversize” signs
- slow down when they see them
- follow instructions from pilot and traffic management staff
- be prepared to stop if required
- overtake only when signalled that it’s safe to do so.
The arrival of the first blades at Northport earlier this week prompted hundreds of comments on a Bream Bay community page, where residents debated the pros and cons of wind farms.
The completed wind farm will house the country’s largest turbines - 12 in total, each standing 206m tall with rotor diameters of 162m. They are expected to generate 77 megawatts of electricity - enough to power about 27,000 homes.
The Department of Conservation initially opposed the project but reversed its decision after agreeing to an increased compensatory funding deal with the developer Tararua Wind Power Limited (TWP), a Mercury Energy subsidiary.
Citizen conservationists remain concerned about the potential adverse impact on protected species, especially the critically endangered Australasian bittern (matuku-hūrepo).
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, much of which she spent reporting on the courts in Gisborne and on the East Coast.