Silverton Wind Farm

Transporting wind turbines
into the red heart of Australia.

The Silverton Wind Farm consisted of 58 GE Renewables 3.4-130 wind turbine generators, situated near Broken Hill in New South Wales. ARES transported all wind turbine components from the Port of Adelaide to site, a distance of 524km one way.

Extreme Terrain?
No sweat.

Built on a jagged rocky ridgeline, Silverton had some of the most challenging site topography we have ever encountered, with road gradients of up to 22 degrees.  On slopes you can barely walk up, our trucks and trailers towed and carried 100 ton nacelles and 30m long tower sections to their final destinations at the top.  

Record Breaking.

The blades for the project were the longest ever transported in Australia at the time, measuring 64 metres in length. That’s as long as a 16 storey building is tall!  This delicate and fragile cargo had to be carefully navigated out of the city of Adelaide before making the long trip to site, with police escorting them all the way.

Extreme Terrain? No sweat.

Built on a jagged rocky ridgeline, Silverton had some of the most challenging site topography we have ever encountered, with road gradients of up to 22 degrees.  On slopes you can barely walk up, our trucks and trailers towed and carried 100 ton nacelles and 30m long tower sections to their final destinations at the top.  

Record Breaking.

The blades for the project were the longest ever transported in Australia at the time, measuring 64 metres in length. That’s as long as a 16 storey building is tall!  This delicate and fragile cargo had to be carefully navigated out of the city of Adelaide before making the long trip to site, with police escorting them all the way.

Big Numbers from a Big Job.

Here are just some of the statistics from this project.

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GE Wind Turbines 

Each turbine stands 175m tall (base to tip), has 5 tower sections and produces 3.4MW of green power.

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Blade Length

The first of a new generation of 60+ metre blades. And ARES were the first to transport them.

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KM’s to Site

The journey took around 8-10 hours, including slowdowns and fatigue breaks.

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Total Deliveries

These include turbine components, towers, blades, transformers and containers.

The Route

Barrier to Entry

All turbine components were taken to site via the Barrier Highway via Burra and Broken Hill. At 524km one way, this was the longest route to site we have ever taken. And with almost 700 deliveries to make, our drivers clocked up an astonishing 730,000km over the course of the whole project!

Equipped to Move the largest cargo

Bigfoot was here.

Extraordinary situations call for extraordinary equipment. And with the Silverton terrain posing an extreme challenge for transport, Ares’ heavy duty Kenworth C500T tow truck was called for. Weighing in at 45 tons, packing 600 horsepower and too large to be allowed on public roads, the truck nicknamed BIGFOOT was in its element towing heavy cargo up the steepest slopes on site.

The Route

Barrier to Entry

All turbine components were taken to site via the Barrier Highway via Burra and Broken Hill. At 524km one way, this was the longest route to site we have ever taken. And with almost 700 deliveries to make, our drivers clocked up an astonishing 730,000km over the course of the whole project!

Equipped to Move the largest cargo

Bigfoot was here.

Extraordinary situations call for extraordinary equipment. And with the Silverton terrain posing an extreme challenge for transport, Ares’ heavy duty Kenworth C500T tow truck was called for. Weighing in at 45 tons, packing 600 horsepower and too large to be allowed on public roads, the truck nicknamed BIGFOOT was in its element towing heavy cargo up the steepest slopes on site.