T BAILEY, INC. was awarded the Steel Tank Institute & Steel Plate Fabricators Association 2009 Fabricated Product of the Year Award for the Grouse Mountain Resorts Ltd. ‘Eye of the Wind’ Wind Tower project.
The Eye of the Wind Project at Grouse Mountain Resorts is the first of its kind for various reasons. It is British Columbia’s first viable wind energy solution. It is the first wind turbine in the world to incorporate a viewPOD observation deck at the top of the tower. It is the first wind tower to have a state-of-the-art elevator which permits the general public to easily ascend the tower to experience the quiet revolution taking place in the field of energy production where they can enjoy the beauty of the engineering as well as the view over the valley below. All of this in time for the world to share the vision at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
T BAILEY, INC. was the steel fabricator for the wind tower and the specialized rotating sleeve that the viewPOD attaches to. The tower itself stands 65M tall and 4M in diameter at the base and was shipped in 3 sections from our Anacortes, WA fabrication facility for erection at the jobsite by others. The tower and sleeve consisted of over 250,000 lbs of steel plate ranging in thickness from 1.25” – 5/8”. Because the tower houses an elevator, the entire tower had to be constructed to the Canadian Building Code and required special access doors at the top and bottom with door frames made out of 2.5” steel plate.