Dozers prepare the ground for the new manufacturing facility with the Hudson River in the background.
(William J. Keller & Sons Construction photo)
The Port of Albany, located in upstate New York, is an important transportation center 160 mi. west of Boston and 124 nautical mi. from New York City.
Sitting astride the Hudson River, the port has 5,400 ft. of wharf, houses machinery capable of heavy lifting of cargo from ships and all manner of railroad connections and warehouse space. The river is 700 ft. across and 31 ft. deep at Albany.
The Port's location and capabilities have positioned it as the center of an important wind energy project. Two parcels of land consisting of approximately 100 acres will be the site of a manufacturing facility that will construct massive wind tower components. The towers when completed will stand 450 ft. tall, approximately the size of a 34-story building. The wind towers will be outfitted with huge propellor blades 150 ft. long.
The massive size of the tower components, too large to be transported by truck or train, will be shipped down the Hudson River by barge to the Atlantic Ocean. The towers will be erected on a rocky shelf on the ocean floor, 10-20 mi. out to sea.
The buildings and company will be one of the first offshore wind tower manufacturing facilities in the country. In addition, the company, a joint venture of Marmen/Welcon will provide hundreds of manufacturing jobs and give the local economy a boost. The manufacturing space will use four buildings in Bethlehem, N.Y., and a fifth building will be in the Port.
The Port of Albany owns the property and is working with Empire Wind, a joint venture of Equinor and BP.
New York State has been a strong proponent of renewable energy, including solar, geothermal and wind. The state has welcomed the project.
"The Port is unusual in that it is located on a body of water suitable to move the large sections of the equipment and towers," said Port of Albany CEO Richard Hendrick. "It is also located close to parcel of land large enough to build the manufacturing facility. The is a once-in-a-generation type of project."
Preparing the Ground
The manufacturing facility will be located on Beacon Island. Site preparation began in 2022 with clearing the land, grubbing and earthwork. Roddy Yagan is managing the project.
"The island was historically created using fill from river dredging," said Yagan.
The biggest job so far has been bringing in one million tons of crushed stone and embankment to surcharge the site. These heavy stone piles will compact the soil and settle for several months before the foundations can be built.
Delivering massive amounts of stone on a property that already has industrial deposits of coal ash has caused some concern.
"We are required to monitor and control dust," said Yagan. "We want to make sure none of that ash is kicked up and leaves the site, so we have air monitors to help us keep that to a minimum."
Once permitting was completed, William J. Keller & Sons moved in to import and properly place the stone and to prepare the ground. Keller used numerous large excavators including a Caterpillar 365 and John Deere 450. The job also required multiple dozers and rollers to move the soil and rock and compact it into place.
The Keller construction team worked through the winter to complete the massive work in six months. In addition to trucking in one million tons of stone and embankment soil, Keller hauled off 15,000 tons of petroleum contaminated soil, 10,000 cu. yds. of unsuitable soil and 14,000 cu. yds. of stumps and woody debris. Keller recycled the woody debris and used existing soil to cut and fill, which saved the need for importing some 100,000 cu. yds. of fill to construct embankments.
Keller did some creative thinking to protect buried gas utility lines on the property.
"Some of the final design and engineering on the project was still being figured out when we had trucks rolling," said Jameson Phillips, vice president for Keller. "We brought out timber matting to protect the utility lines when we were transporting the material. We also used air bridges to protect the large gas mains from the heavy equipment and trucks."
A hazard of working in the winter was the frost build up in areas where the fill had to be placed.
"That didn't take us long to fix," said Phillips. "We brought in a milling machine to grind up the frost."
The Keller team used technology to properly position the enormous volume of rock and soil on the island.
"We used our new Propeller Aero Trimble drone to track real time cut/fill," said Phillips. "The drone allowed us to track disturbance limits (for SWPPP), low topography for ponds and site management throughout the winter."
The Keller team had to contend with lots of dirt and mud kicked up by hauling rock through winter across some saturated ground.
"We kept two sweeper trucks busy all the time to prevent trucks from tracking the mud across public roadways," said Phillips.
Although the project is still in its early stages, the work at Port of Albany promises important advances in renewable energy for New Yorkers. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul summed up the project by saying, "Welcome to the future." CEG
Chuck MacDonald
Chuck MacDonald is an editor, blogger and freelance feature writer whose writing adventures have taken him to 48 states and 10 countries. He has been the editor for magazines on pavement construction, chemicals, insurance and missions. Chuck enjoys bicycling, kayaking and reading. He graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism. Chuck lives in Annapolis, Md. with his wife Kristen. They have seven grandchildren.
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