Watco Supply Chain Services is a key partner in a newly-opened $6.8 million transload shipping hub site in Kansas that is a staging area for wind turbine components, and has wasted no time in filling acreage with those components.
It’s a success story, said Commercial Manager Casey Harbour, for many reasons.
“This is not only an incredible collaboration for all aspects of Watco — from rail, supply chain, everyone — it’s a project that illustrates the atmosphere that Mr. Webb created in our company,” Harbour said, referring to Watco founder Dick Webb. “It’s all about creating a successful solution for our Customers.”
“And it’s a huge win for Watco as a whole.”
The facility, just outside Great Bend, Kansas, is an ideal location for wind turbine storage, as it’s near several developmental sites for future projects. And the timing, as renewable energy becomes a focus across the U.S., is perfect, Harbour said.
Watco’s relationships within the industry and its ability to serve in multiple facets, from transportation provider to mechanical inspections to repair work on railcar fleets, were considerations in landing the job.
Other partners include Fuller Industries, Great Bend Chamber of Commerce, the State of Kansas, and the City of Great Bend.
After conversations with wind component manufacturers, in early January Watco was awarded the first project with a wind company.
“From there, it’s snowballed into more,” Harbour said.
Operations Manager of Railroad Logistics Paul Williams, on the Supply Chain side, said the project filled about 24 acres by the end of February, and Watco recently leased an additional 30.
“We have around 45,000 square feet of indoor storage and it will be full this month,” Williams said. “We have 204 tower sections on the ground, 35 hubs, 105 blades, and we’re expecting another 300 tower sections in April.”
Those components have been received via truck and rail, then have been offloaded and placed on fixtures on the ground where they will remain for a few months or years of storage until they’re assigned to a wind farm.
Then, Watco will reload them to truck or rail for delivery to those farms.
“It spills over into other industries,” Harbour noted. “You have to have cranes to lift them, a qualified Team, and it utilizes both the trucking industry and rail industry.”
Meanwhile, Watco is continuing to be awarded more projects.
Harbour credits Williams and Barth West for their work on the project.
“They’ve taken the ball and run with it,” he said. “I’m just here to support them any way I can. They have the expertise and the relationships to make this thing go.”
Williams said it was “a real Team effort.”
“I don’t think either one of us could have done it without the other,” he said.
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