Because construction involves many people, the project team often has a large presence in the community during this time. We encourage our construction partners to source the resources they need as much as possible from the local community, including labour, materials, transport, accommodation and food. This not only engages the community, it’s also more efficient in terms of project delivery.
There are multiple benefits for communities during this time.
Every wind farm generates direct opportunities for employment in the region, during both the construction phase and once the wind farm is commissioned. Those benefits flow through to a range of other businesses in the area, including:
- Domestic scale electricians;
- Transport operators;
- Competent machine operators;
- General labourers;
- Quarries; and
- Concrete suppliers.
The influx of skilled people into a community during the construction phase is often an opportunity to encourage civil construction and other project delivery partners to use their equipment and expertise to contribute to local community projects. The skate park in the centre of Snowtown is a great example of this. It was sponsored and constructed by Catcon, the civil construction contractor for the Snowtown Stage 2 project.