Ad
RIO COMMUNITIES—The first shipment of sections of large wind towers being manufactured at the Arcosa wind-tower production facility in the Rio Grande Industrial Park, south of the city of Rio Communities, were trucked Tuesday morning through Valencia County.
At about 10 a.m. Tuesday, trucks hauling the 190-foot towers made their way from the facility, through Rio Communities, south to U.S. 60 in Socorro County and then west to Interstate 25.
Because of the large load, the New Mexico Department of Transportation is conducting full intersection closures at N.M. 304 and N.M. 47, N.M. 47 and US 60, and US 60 and the I-25 northbound on-ramp (including N.M. 116).
There will be a maximum of three daily intersection closures occurring between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. These closures are necessary to facilitate the transportation of wind turbine towers through the state. These closures are expected to occur no longer than three weeks.
During Monday’s Rio Communities Council meeting, Tom Robinson, a consultant with General Electric working with Arcosa, said the move from the facility through the intersection at N.M. 304 and 47 will accommodate moving 30 towers in the next three weeks.
“They asked me to put together a temporary solution from the facility,” Robinson said. “Starting this week, the plan is to move two or three tours per day until we pull out 30 towers. We do have a permanent solution, and once that’s completed we’ll have a new roadway.”
Margaret Haynes, a traffic engineer with the New Mexico Department of Transportation, said there will be automated flagging operations at the intersections per safety protocol.
“We did talk to the director of Belen Schools transportation, and he’s very concerned about the buses and routes,” Haynes said. “We’ll make sure our flaggers know that when they see a bus, they’ll allow traffic to flow to get that bus through.”
She also said the flaggers will allow emergency vehicles through as well.
Haynes clarified for the council Monday that when they say they’re moving two to three towers a day, that means six to nine trucks.
Ad
“We’ll be out here to make sure the turning (of the trucks) is working and making any modifications as needed,” she said.
When asked by the councilors if any other times, such as later in the day or even at night, were available to move the towers and close the intersection, Haynes said only on the weekends. She explained that if they were to move the towers later in the day, it would affect traffic not only in Rio Communities but for the city of Belen as well.
“Because the loads are so large, they’re not allowed on the roads that late at night,” Haynes said.
Other than scraping the median with the bottom of the trailer at the intersection of N.M. 47 and N.M. 304 on Tuesday, the movement of the wind towers went pretty smoothly, said Rio Communities Fire Chief Andrew Tabet.
Arcosa Wind Towers, an Arcosa, Inc. subsidiary, bought, expanded and updated the former Keter Plastics manufacturing plant, which closed in the spring of 2020.
Antonio Carrillo, president and CEO of Arcosa, said in July there are about 125 people working at the Belen facility now and he wants to reach 200 people over the next six months.
