[Vision2020] ITD, Oil Company Happy With Megaload Test Run

[Tom Hansen]

"Adam Rush, ITD spokesman, said, 'If there’s a delay above 15 minutes, we
don’t automatically characterize that as a failure.' Rush said he couldn’t
say what would have made the test a failure.

One thing that would have certainly considered the test run to be a
failure, Mr. Rush . . . a conscience.

Courtesy of today's (May 7, 2011) Spokesman-Review.

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ITD, oil company happy with megaload test run
Opponents’ lawyer cites delay, power outage

BOISE – A “test module” for proposed oversize loads on U.S. Highway 12 in
north-central Idaho made it to Montana this week, but it took weeks to
arrive and caused a five-hour power outage and an hourlong traffic delay
along the way. Still, state transportation officials and Imperial
Oil/ExxonMobil call the test a success.

“With the exception of the tree branch we clipped out of Lewiston and the
guy wire, that move was very well done,” Imperial Oil project manager
Kenneth Johnson told a state hearings officer Friday. The load struck a
guy wire to power lines, knocking out power to two Idaho towns, closing
the road for an hour and leading to a delay of more than two weeks.

Laird Lucas of Advocates for the West, an attorney representing residents
and business owners along the route who object to the giant loads, dubbed
the test a failure.

“Based on what happened with the test module, they should pack up all
their gear and go with a different route,” Lucas told The
Spokesman-Review. “They were projecting they would go from Lewiston to
Lolo Pass in three nights.” Instead, the trip took more than three weeks.
“They knocked out power to 1,300 people, they had traffic delay of an
hour.”

The test load, designed to match the tallest, longest and widest of the
proposed 200-plus loads, left Lewiston on April 11 on its way to the Kearl
Oil Sands project in Alberta. On its first night out, it clipped tree
branches and then struck the guy wire.

During the ensuing two-week delay, crews raised 16 utility lines and
trimmed trees throughout the scenic highway corridor. Then on April 26,
the load traveled more than 100 miles in one night, stopping at a chain-up
area at the base of Lolo Pass, where it remained because of bad weather
until making the final 35-minute trip to the top of Lolo Pass on May 4.

The proposed permits for the giant loads, the topic of a hearing before
retired Idaho District Judge Duff McKee, forbid traffic delays exceeding
15 minutes. Because the three-story-high loads are so wide that they take
up the entire highway and create a rolling roadblock, they’re required to
pull off every 15 minutes to let traffic pass.

Adam Rush, ITD spokesman, said, “If there’s a delay above 15 minutes, we
don’t automatically characterize that as a failure.” Rush said he couldn’t
say what would have made the test a failure.

“ITD viewed the test module as a success,” Rush said. “The purpose was to
test the traffic control plan and how the plan would function on U.S. 12.

 I mean, we understand that they may have difficulties that would lead to
delays above 15 minutes. That doesn’t necessarily negate the traffic
control plan or the transportation plan.”

Lucas said that on the night the giant load went more than 100 miles, it
“blew through” many of the scheduled turnouts and didn’t follow its
transportation plan; company and ITD officials said there was no need to
stop when there was no traffic.

Johnson said, “We clearly demonstrated that we could do it in three nights
of travel. We had some issues along the way that we corrected.”

The test, he said, was intended to “prove how well we could do it.”

A business group backing the oversize loads issued a statement hailing the
test load’s completion of its trip through Idaho. “It did what it was
supposed to do,” said Doug Mattoon, executive director of Valley Vision in
Lewiston and a member of the group calling itself Drive Our Economy.
“Those issues have now been identified and corrected,” he said.

The big loads consist of giant modules of oil equipment manufactured in
Korea and brought to the Post of Lewiston by barge. They’re destined for
use by Imperial Oil, a Canadian affiliate of ExxonMobil.

Because of delays in getting the permits, the company is now in the
process of cutting 33 of the loads in half while in Lewiston, so they can
travel up Highway 95 to Coeur d’Alene, take Interstate 90 to Butte, and
then take Interstate 15 north into Canada. The cut-down loads will be half
as tall but just as wide.

The test module is 24 feet wide, 30 feet high, 208 feet long and weighs
about 500,000 pounds. It’s now parked indefinitely at Lolo Hot Springs in
Montana, awaiting the outcome of a court hearing there on roadwork needed
to allow it to pass through that state without delaying traffic more than
10 minutes.

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That's just it!

If ITD, Conoco, and ExxonMobil consider this test run to be a success, it
is absolutely frightful what the future may hold.

One down, 200+ to go.

Seeya at Hamilton Indoor Recreation Center at 7:00 pm on Wednesday (May
11th), Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to
changeand the Realist adjusts his sails."

 - Unknown