Wind turbine blades headed for Texas

Three wind turbine blades travel through McCook Tuesday afternoon, following a city loader, that moved piled snow at the intersections of North Highway 83 and West B and South Highway 83 and East B. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Three 140-foot wind turbine blades on 16-axle trucks crept through McCook Tuesday afternoon, assisted in their southbound trip by city employees who directed traffic and moved huge piles of snow.

The blades were en route from Grand Forks, N.D., to a wind farm near Abilene, Texas, according to Duane Rieger of A&D Truck Escort of Walcott, N.D.

The blades are manufactured, he said, by L&M Fiberglass, an Amish company in Grand Forks.

This is the first move for 140-foot blades, he said. Blades previously have been 122 feet long. "The next blades will be about 155 feet long, and there's a 200-footer on the drawing board now," Rieger said. Bigger, heavier blades will have to be hauled in pieces, he said.

The blades parked in Oberlin Tuesday night. The trucks will complete the six-state journey in three to four days.