Logan County Board to vote Sugar Creek Wind Farm request for phased construction

 

[March 18, 2019] 

When the Logan County Board meets on Tuesday, March 19, they will be voting on requests for changes for the Sugar Creek Wind Farm. That project is expected to begin construction soon.

Planning and Zoning Chairman David Hepler said he will bring forward three motions.

• to allow Sugar Creek to be completed in phases

• to allow nighttime construction activities unless prohibited by the road use agreement

• to authorize Patrick Engineering to review the Decommissioning Plan

At the Logan County Planning and Zoning Committee meeting on Wednesday, March 6, project representatives discussed the changes they are seeking.

Logan County Zoning Officer Will D’Andrea said he has talked to the developers about some of the requests, but the board must give them the “go ahead” for these changes.

Yuri Attaro, project manager, talked about what changes they are asking for some of the conditions. One condition is that they submit design certificates once it has been determined what turbines will be used for the project.

Attaro said these certificates are provided by a third-party engineering firm, but there are issues with the design certificates since one turbine model is still being designed.

There are two different turbine models for the project, the Vestas 110 and the Vestas 150. They have the design certificates for the Vestas 110, which is an older model. However, the Vestas 150 is a brand-new machine and the first prototype was just put up a few months ago in Europe.

Attaro is asking the board to allow the issuance of foundation building permits prior to the issuance of a tower permit. The developers are looking to have the tower permits issued closer to April 2020, and by that time, they will have the design certificates in place. Attaro is requesting they be allowed to start some of the construction in 2019 without having the certificates in place.

Kyle Barry, attorney for the project, said a similar category of certificates is required under conditions numbers three and four that professional engineers must sign off on and it may take a while to get the certificates. He asked if they could proceed in phases.

Attaro said condition three requires that a professional engineer licensed in the state of Illinois sign-off on tower and foundation design certificates and they will have foundation design certificates and are working to satisfy the tower design for the newer one.

D’Andrea said permitting is done in two phases starting with foundation only. Normally he gets the certifications prior to issuing a foundation permit, but the phasing schedule can still happen. D’Andrea said the only change is allowing some construction without certification, but construction of towers will not start without the certifications.

Committee member Chuck Ruben asked if the permit dollars would still come in this fall and D’Andrea said yes.

The board will vote on whether to allow Sugar Creek to be completed in phases.

The second change Attaro requested was a waiver on the sunrise to sunset condition for some filling work that will need to be done overnight.

D’Andrea asked how many concrete trucks would be needed and how long it would take to pour foundations.

Attaro said pouring concrete will take about 16 hours and for safety reasons, concrete pouring cannot be stopped once it is started.

Ruben said he has talked to several other board members and all are of the opinion that nighttime construction other than roadwork be allowed, so they can get in and get done.

Committee member Kevin Bateman said construction of the towers, blade placement, hub placement, pouring concrete, and the switch station should be allowed at night within reason.

Committee member Scott Schaffenacker said they have no way of enforcing it after the fact.

The board will be voting whether to allow nighttime construction activities unless prohibited by the road use agreement.

The last issue Attaro asked was about whether the decommissioning plan submitted after being done by Westwood Engineering could be reviewed by Patrick Engineering as a third party.

Bateman said Patrick Engineering did well with HillTopper’s plans and motioned to use Patrick Engineering as the third party to look at the decommissioning plans.

The board will vote on all three motions at Tuesday’s board meeting.

[Angela Reiners]

Past related articles:
Sugar Creek Wind Farm turbines will be located west of Lincoln, south of Route 10.

Liberty Power Moves Ahead with 202 MW Sugar Creek Wind Project

Sugar Creek Wind Farm project asks Logan County assistance in utilities easement snag

Sugar Creek Wind Farm developers seek approval of changes and fewer turbines