OGDENSBURG — Observers enjoying the bird’s-eye view from Ford Street can see that the Port of Ogdensburg is abuzz with activity, but the sheer size and scope of the project is most apparent up close.

St. Lawrence County Legislator Vernon D. “Sam” Burns, R-Ogdensburg, and Conservative Party Chairman Henry R. Ford toured the port Wednesday.

“This is really amazing,” Mr. Burns said. “It’s good to see so much activity here.”

Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority Executive Director Wade A. Davis led the pair through a maze of gargantuan wind turbine components that arrived at the St. Lawrence River facility by ship and rail. Mr. Davis said that without $100,000 in port improvements and a $1.8 million port access road, the project might not have happened.

“This was a real team effort. Everything had to come together,” Mr. Davis said.

“I’d always dreamed of something being down here,” Mr. Ford said. “It seemed like people thought about it as a drop-off area for salt.”

Now, the port is brimming with cargo that made the minivan tour vehicles appear Lilliputian in comparison.

“It looks like you guys have your hands full with this,” Mr. Ford said.

Mr. Davis said the wind turbine project was one the authority hoped to build upon.

“We have a lot more than salt going on here,” said Mr. Davis, dwarfed by a 13-foot-high, 180-foot-long, 47-ton wind turbine blade constructed in the Czech Republic.

Elsewhere, Mr. Burns noted another set of turbine components built in Vietnam.

“This was made in Vietnam. You have stuff made in China,” he said. “Why can’t it be made here?”

Frederick S. Morrill, a county legislator and the authority’s deputy executive director, argued that the project brought economic benefits nonetheless.

“Last winter, the port had 27 or 28 employees on site, but right now we have over 120 working,” he said.

“Big projects like this bring money and activity to the area, but our other big goal is perpetual business.”

Mr. Morrill said the authority was working to bring in long-term clients while seeking further wind projects.

Later on the tour, the group watched as a 70-ton tower piece was lifted from a ship, the Sloman Dispatcher, onto a waiting truck. Two giant cranes gently lowered the piece onto the trailer, where it was cradled and lashed down by longshoremen.

“We couldn’t do it without our longshoremen,” Mr. Davis said. “They make it look easy.”

He said the piece was one of 15 for each turbine, with a project total of 70 turbines.

“You guys should be in here when a blade train comes in,” Mr. Davis said. “They are over a mile long and come in from Colorado.”

Meanwhile, trucks from Lone Star Transportation of Fort Worth, Texas, were staging for the morning shipment of turbine components to Marble River Wind Farm in Churubusco.

“This is something else,” Mr. Ford said. “Everyone should have an opportunity to look at this.”

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer