2024-07-14 20:00:00
One morning, before eight, on a meadow outside the small village of Garnwerd in the province of Groningen. Grey sky, raindrops, meadow, dyke, reeds, cows. In the distance there are some windmills and Garnwerd Church. Also on display is the new high-voltage line between Eemshaven and Vierverlaten.
But the most important thing near Garnwerde this morning was the old high-voltage line that also runs from Emshaven to Viervelratten (west of Groningen). The contractor Bam and the grid operator Tennet have been carrying out the dismantling work since the beginning of October last year. Everyone agreed that because the new line was already there, the old line had to go.
Almost all of the 1,100km of wrist-thick wire has been removed. 5,000 tonnes of wire will be melted down at a steel company, 2,000 tonnes of aluminium will be processed elsewhere. The line’s 129 lattice masts are being removed: today was the 99th.
It is later than expected because heavy rains in recent months have caused delays to the work. When there is heavy rainfall, the machinery needed to remove the masts would cause too much damage to the grass.
The downpour the night before and the raindrops this morning were no problem. There is a large slab between the road and the mast 99: the day before, a large telescopic crane and two hydraulic excavators drove up to the mast on the slab. The tackle was hung from the crane and fixed to the mast. Just following eight o’clock, the work began. The mast is 52 meters high and weighs 55 tons.
Such a small mast can be lowered quickly
Two excavators equipped with large scrap shears headed for the mast. There was some rumbling and stumbling. Shearing and shearing, two masts went through. Then two more, and two more. Within a few minutes, the mast no longer had a lower part, but was hanging on the hoist. Fortunately, there was almost no wind: even if it was strong, it would not be possible to work.
This is a medium-sized mast, say project leaders Johan Brouwer (Bam) and Martijn Warners (Tennet). Some are smaller, but some are larger: up to 87 tonnes. “Sometimes a mast has to be cut through ten times,” says Brouwer. “Then the removal takes a day.” Smaller masts are faster. “We sometimes do two in one day.” Six a week on average. After 98 masts, 99 masts are more or less routine.
The preparation took a lot of time
Removing the mast may have been quick, but the whole project took a lot of time. Warners says the work started following consultation with around 55 farmers who own the land where the old line was built more than 50 years ago. “Most people are happy that the mast is gone, it was a bit difficult to coordinate with just one mast.” Brouwer: “We had to take a lot of factors into account. There was potato blight in Groningen. To prevent contamination, our employees sometimes mightn’t walk from one field to another, and we always cleaned our machines.”
There are farmers who ask for a delay because they want to mow their land first. “That means we sometimes have to jump the mast.” Tennet and Bam have to take the breeding season into account. Villages like Westeremden and Garnwerd are not interested in heavy trucks with road signs on their roads and lanes. Brouwer: “Then we take a detour.”
It was half past eight now. The mast was half-mast.
Demolition costs tens of millions
Brouwer points out. Preparations for the removal of mast No. 100 are already underway. Next comes a corner mast: a huge piece of solid steel. The ramp has been laid at mast No. 100. Brouwer says it is mainly these plates (around 3,500 plates are needed in total) that dictate the pace of work. Twenty plates can be loaded onto a large truck. All in all, today, as usual, around thirty people are working on the project.
At 8.50am, the cutting was complete. The mast head was sitting on top of the cut pieces. “There’s one more,” Brouwer muttered. The excavator stopped for coffee. The cutting would soon continue. The pieces would then be cut into smaller pieces and placed in three containers. It sounded odd, but Brouwer and Warner confirmed it: yes, all the material to build a lattice mast would fit into three rather large containers.
The work is not yet finished. The concrete foundation of the mast will still be lifted and removed in one piece. Then it will be recycled. Once the road signs are gone from the pasture, “cultural-technical restoration” will still take place, says Werners. The soil beneath the road slab will be milled away. The project will be finished in September and the old line from Eemshaven to Vierverlaten will be gone. The cost? About 20 million euros. The construction of the new line would cost more than ten times that.
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