Moraine Sands Wind Project

Cordelio Power chose Mortenson as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor to install the Moraine Sands Wind Project in Mason City, Illinois. The scope of work for Moraine Sands included the erection of 38 Vestas V150 4.5 MW turbines, access roads, public road upgrades, foundations, MET and ADLS towers, underground collection and substation. Construction began in the Spring of 2023 and ended in December of 2023. At peak construction, 300 craft team members were employed on site, with about a third of the staff representing local contractors from around the Mason County area. 

Moraine Sands presented coordination and logistical challenges such as turbine component load out from two separate off-site storage yards, and turbine component transportation to the project site. Mortenson was required to manage a labor force that spanned the project site and separate off-site storage yards simultaneously. The existing public road infrastructure needed to be modified to support delivery of the turbine components starting in early Q3 2023. To combat these challenges, Mortenson assembled a management team with significant experience operating in the Midwest. The team partnered with a sophisticated transportation trade partner that brought a high level of expertise and experience to the project. 

The potential presence of endangered species required careful planning and execution of construction work. To avoid potential disturbances to endangered bat species, team members worked with our tree clearing partner to ensure that tree removal activities occurred within the winter tree clearing season specified by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The team also coordinated with biological monitors to implement best management practices (BMPs) that ensured protection of the Illinois Chorus Frog, a threatened species in the state of Illinois.  These BMPs included surveying work areas, covering open trenches overnight, and scheduling activities to minimize disturbances during the breeding season.

The project site team had a strong culture of inclusivity and giving back. Between presenting our children’s book “Catch the Wind” while serving ice cream to the local children, partnering with Cordelio to donate $6,000 worth of children’s bikes to a local charity, playing trivia with the town of Lincoln and working out together, this team was a well-oiled machine. Every Wednesday night anyone interested was invited to come to Trivia Night at a watering hole in the nearby town of Lincoln. “The entire town of Lincoln was full of smart people who would show up for Trivia Night. It always became a friendly competition between us and the town,” Tyler Yseth, Wind Project Manager at Moraine Sands Wind Project fondly recalled. Some of the team members would meet at 5 am to work out together every morning before starting work on the site and would often play basketball against each other. Another team nearby working on a Mortenson repower wind project challenged the Moraine Sands project team to a baseball game. And you guessed it, the Moraine Sands team won!

Throughout the project, the customer and turbine supplier gave the project team glowing reviews including:

"Cordelio greatly appreciated the work from Mortenson at Moraine Sand and continues to enjoy our relationship with Mortenson to building future projects together." Paul Rapp COO – Cordelio Power

“Great collaboration going on there and certainly the direction we all need to go. Will certainly do a lessons learned from this one and press the teams to repeat on all the sites!”
-Jason Sterling, Director, EPC Operations, Vestas

As a final endorsement, Cordelio contracted their next wind project with Mortenson and requested the Mortenson Moraine team members for that project as well!