The Jayhawk Wind Project in Bourbon County is in construction.
“We are moving forward,” said Bourbon County Commissioner Lynne Oharah. “They are out there now, putting gravel on roads and widening access on the roads.”
To view the map of the wind farm site: JAY_Final_Facilities_Map_20210308
“They are east and north of Porterville, in southwest Bourbon County, around 40th and Eagle Road,” Frank Young, an engineer with Agricultural Engineering Associates, Uniontown, said. “I have looked at a couple of culverts for them to see if they will hold up traffic for them.”
“They are upgrading some of the roads to be able to get some big rigs down them,” Young said.
Bourbon County Public Works Director Eric Bailey said I.E.A. , the contractor, sends him a plan of the day, every day and yesterday they worked on Eagle Road between 40th and 50th Streets, capping over 2100 linear feet and additionally, 50th from Eagle Road to Hwy. 3 putting over 4200 linear feet.
“They put on 4-6 inches of gravel,” Bailey said.
Today they are working on 50th from Eagle to Hwy. 39 and 30th from Hwy. 39 going south, he said.
“They have a lay-down yard at (the junction of) Hwy. 39 and Hwy. 3,” Bailey said. “This is where they will have all their job trailers, their starting point every day, where the contractors will report in.”
Young said the area is about 10 acres and is the delivery area as well.
The Jayhawk Wind project will have a capacity of 193.2 Megawatts and can power 65,000 homes, according to the Apex website.
According to the March 3 press release from Apex Clean Energy
“The Jayhawk facility… is expected to be operational later this year, will consist of 70 GE wind turbines totaling an installed capacity of more than 190 MW. The project will provide significant economic benefits for the local and state economies—including the creation of more than 115 construction jobs and 7 long-term operations positions—and will generate over $20 million in landowner payments and $27.2 million in tax revenue.”
To view the press release:
Jayhawk Wind Sold to WEC Energy Group
To see a prior feature:
And not a single megawatt coming to Bourbon County. Our utilities will just keep on going up, while those eyesores that we have to look at, power the servers of Facebook in Nebraska.
Great Job commissioners, always doing what the people want. How about doing something FOR Bourbon County? Is that too much to ask for? How about free electricity for every residence in the county? These things are going to generate plenty of power afterall. SMDH