Building a wind farm is a big undertaking. So is getting the materials on-site to build it.

The addition of 14 new, power-generating windmills will require a Hilo company to move pieces as long as 112 feet from Hilo Harbor to South Point. The pieces are so large that the general contractor in charge of the project actually had to make improvements to two stretches of road so the shipments will make it through.

Representatives from the companies behind what is called the Pakini Nui South Point Windmill Project will hold a meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Naalehu Community Center to discuss delays and temporary road closures caused by the project.

Hilo-based Yamada and Sons will move more than 100 truckloads of parts for the project. Lee Pedersen, construction manager for Yamada, said "most of the loads will be normal."

Several, however, will be massive. The blades for the 14 windmills measure almost 112 feet. Each windmill tower will be moved in three pieces, the longest being 98 1/2 feet.

Getting out of the harbor and onto Kanoelehua Avenue poses problems, but Pedersen said winding roads near Naalehu and South Point will be the biggest challenge.

For the transport of larger pieces to even be possible, a right-angle curve on Highway 11 near Kamaoa Road needed improvement, said Police Capt. Marshall Kanehailua, commander of the Ka'u District. The turn off on Highway 11 onto South Point Road also needed to be altered.

Pedersen said those improvements were the responsibility of Minnesota-based Mortenson Construction, which is building the windmills for Apollo Power.

While a large load makes its way south, there will be three trouble spots in Ka'u. First, there will be a short road closure on Highway 11 from the Whittington Beach park to the Naalehu Police Station, a distance of about two miles.

As the load approaches Waiohinu, traffic will be detoured off the highway onto Kamaoa Road. Eastbound traffic will be detoured onto Kamaoa Road via South Point Road.

When the large loads reach South Point Road, traffic will be stopped in all directions as trucks negotiate turning off the highway.

Kanehailua said he expects the closures to last about five or 10 minutes.

The larger loads will back up traffic in other ways, too. Pedersen said drivers will be required to travel at 5 mph while crossing some bridges.

The 14 towers will be built about 1 1/2 miles from an existing wind farm that had fallen into disrepair and was finally shut off Aug. 15.

When the Pakini Nui project is complete, it will add up to 20.5 megawatts to the Big Island's power grid. The recently closed wind farm produced a maximum of about 7.5 megawatts. Currently, the Big Island's entire power grid consists of less than 300 megawatts.

Apollo Power will sell the wind farm's electricity to the Hawaii Electric Light Co.

Art Russell, an electrical engineer for HELCO, said the company has a commitment to using renewable energy sources, but that there are some obstacles to making a large wind power source work seamlessly. Because the winds will stop and start, there are fluctuations in how the electricity reaches HELCO's equipment.

"It kind of wreaks havoc on the frequency," Russell said. "Sometimes you have to do some pretty fancy things to mitigate."

Russell said Apollo plans to have the system online in February 2007.

Alan Schnepf can be reached at aschnepf@hawaiitribune-herald.com.