CROSS COUNTY — The Crossover Wind project is making progress in Cross County.
The project is owned by Cordelio Power of Toronto, Canada. The company’s CEO is John Carson.
“We are pleased that we got our laydown yard being graded kind of as we speak,” Carson said. “These are some of the early activities related to construction. We are headed for full construction a little later this year, like around May. That’s when you can expect to see a whole lot of people getting busy around the project area and a lot of hustle and bustle and a lot of folks in the area.
“Right now, we are also laying some irrigation pipe,” he added. “We have also excavated some of the initial turbine positions, where we dig the hole in the ground essentially where we lay the foundation. A lot of the early-stage activities underway. Some access roads being built. The main construction part is going to start toward the end of next month.”
Carson says Cross County will begin to see a lot of activity on the project beginning in late May or early June.
“You’ll see a bunch of people around and you’ll see some trucks rolling in, rolling in with equipment destined for that laydown yard,” he said. “You’ll see a lot more road activity and excavation activity. Maybe some large cranes at a couple locations. You know most of the locations sit back from the road so I don’t know if they’ll be a lot of visible impact, etc. … I think the biggest impact probably getting those trucks coming through delivering equipment. That’s going to be the most visible part of this construction activity.”
The project includes wind turbines that will be constructed west and southwest of Wynne, from near the U.S. 64 intersection with Arkansas Highway 350 to the L’Anguille River and south of the Wynne water treatment plant and then Arkansas Highway 350 from near Smith Chapel Baptist Church to Arkansas Highway 284 at McElroy. Carson expects a completion date early next year.
“I think it will be just into the new year,” he said. “Things will be sprouting up. … The project in its biggest part will be kind of completed very early in 2025.”
The project will include at least 35 wind turbines in the areas mentioned. Carson says residents in those areas should not expect much – if any – noise from the turbines.
“Folks will find out, but I think they’ll be pleased to find out it’s very little,” he said. “Somebody might disagree with me along the way, but this has certainly been my experience and I have been working around these wind projects for over 20 years myself. … If you walk up to the turbine and the turbine is spinning because the wind is blowing, then you’re probably going to hear a ‘whoosh whoosh’ standing under it. If you move much distance away from it, that noise is going to dissipate pretty rapidly.”
“It would be my expectation that there won’t be much impact from noise. I don’t think it will be too bothersome to folks in the community,” Carson concluded. “If there is a situation where that’s occurring later and it’s creating a problem, we want to be all over that and address it.”
