Radio spots focus on driving safety during Vasco Road wind turbine construction

Giant wind turbines are being built along a winding road south of Brentwood with a history of fatal crashes, and Contra Costa County leaders want to remind drivers to keep their eyes on the road and not the project.

As a condition for allowing the 426-foot-tall wind turbines, Contra Costa supervisors in April required the wind energy company installing them to create a safe-driving radio campaign for Vasco Road.

"The construction changes the landscape in that area," said Supervisor Mary Nejedly Piepho, of Discovery Bay. "My (goal) is that those who travel that road are aware of the change, aware of the construction, and that they are slowing down and driving safely."

NextEra Energy Resources, the developer, began to install the 34 new wind turbines Aug. 8. They will replace 438 existing wind turbines that are 90 feet tall. Supervisors eased a buffer zone restriction that would have blocked some of the machines.

The larger machines will generate 150 percent more energy than the older ones, NextEra spokesman Anthony Pedroni said. The project is similar to one completed earlier this year by another wind energy company on the Alameda County side of Vasco Road.

"We'll have them all installed before the end of November, and we'll be online, generating power, before the end of the year," he added.

Piepho previously had expressed concerns that big turbines could distract drivers on busy Vasco Road and lead to more crashes. She has spoken out for stronger safety measures on the road for nearly a decade, and led efforts to widen lanes and build a concrete median in some of the more dangerous sections of the road.

A five-mile stretch of the corridor, near Brushy Peak, now is being revamped. Besides lane-widening and a median, several passing lanes are being extended, and there will eventually be a longer stretch for two lanes in each direction. The project, paid for with a federal grant, is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Piepho said.

Pedroni said that in addition the radio ad campaign, which is running on KCBS, KATM and KUIC, NextEra has put up signs along Vasco Road advising drivers to stay alert and slow down in the construction zone.

"There's been wind farms along Vasco Road for 20 years," he said. "But there is construction going on, so there is going to be increased traffic and new scenery. We want to be proactive and let people know what those activities are."