Wildcat Wind Farm
Located in Windfall, Indiana, the Wildcat Wind Farm consists of 125 windmills that generate enough energy to power 60,000 homes. The construction site for these windmills encompassed 15,000 acres of farmland – over 23 square miles – across two counties. The teams at imi, E&B Paving, and Specialties Company collaborated to take on this large and complex project.
Project Overview
On a construction site this expansive and comprehensive, there are multiple obstacles to overcome, including transporting large equipment over approved roadways. To assist with this issue, Specialties Company was first on the site, designing and building 53 miles of new access roads. Specialties Company also reworked existing county roads, adding soil stabilization material to withstand the weight of construction vehicles. imi Aggregates added 250,000 tons of crushed stone to these roads and E&B Paving paved 10 miles of the roads and added stone shoulders.
imi supplied 60,000 yards of concrete for the project including each windmill foundation. The engineering specifications for the foundations required 5,000 psi concrete and limited its core temperature to a maximum of 160 degrees F. However, the concrete would need to gain early strength and be backfilled as soon as three days. Quality requirements and time restrictions were in conflict with each other. The imi quality control divison went to work on a concrete mix that would not only meet ultimate strength and temperature specs, but would also accomplish 60% strength gain in as early as 24 hours to meet the project’s specifications. The quallity control team used a chiller to lower batch water temperature, watered and shaded all of their aggregate stockpiles, and increased their cementitous material inventory to allow for a cooling period. imi personnel were on site to monitor the concrete at each pour. Not only did the concrete meet all of these requirements, imi was able to increase production and dedicate a fleet of trucks to delivery.
