Wind farm construction starts in challenging terrain at Matzenhöhe

In north-west Twiste, workers from the local civil engineering company free their construction vehicles from the snow and warm themselves with a cup of coffee before beginning their day’s work widening the road infrastructure. Civil engineering work for the Matzenhöhe wind farm has been in progress since January and involves creating temporary access ways as well as setting up crane bases and jibs.

“The construction of a wind farm brings substantial road infrastructure gains for the communities,” explains project manager Melanie Jaschinski. “For example, if the paved traffic areas we use have any existing damage, UKA will repair it. [SR1] Once construction work is complete, the existing roads are generally much more stable, weather-resistant, and better irrigated than before. This significantly increases their long-term usability, traffic safety, and suitability for agricultural, forestry, and municipal purposes.”

Traditional 2D planning reaches its limits in projects such as Matzenhöhe that involve challenging terrain, so UKA uses 3D planning to create precise terrain models to:

• Optimize the elevation of the plant locations,
• Integrate paths and crane routes with precision, and
• Significantly improve the balance of earth and material volumes.

This allows excavation and backfill volumes to be better harmonized while deliberately reducing the volumes of gravel, base course, and concrete used.

In turn, this avoids:

• Unnecessary earthworks and thus costs for excavation, transport, and landfill,
• Overdimensioned path and foundation structures,
• Expensive redesigns on the construction site, because the model already takes account of conflicts with paths, cable routes, and embankments.

UKA relies on robust 3D scenarios in its project development. This allows planning variants to be quickly compared and decisions to be explained transparently to investors, authorities, and project partners. 3D planning helps reduce construction costs, minimize project risks, and implement wind farms economically, even in challenging terrain.