[Vision2020] Oversized loads will start rolling on U.S. 95 this week

[Tom Hansen]


Courtesy of today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News . . .

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Oversized loads will start rolling on U.S. 95 this week
Vehicles carrying windmill blades will leave Lewiston and travel through Moscow on the way to Canada starting Wednesday
By Anthony Kuipers Daily News staff writer

Part of U.S. Highway 95 will experience intermittent closures and parking will be prohibited near downtown Moscow as large vehicles hauling windmill blades will be passing through the city starting this week.

The Idaho Transportation Department announced Friday that more than 80 oversized loads will depart at night from the Port of Lewiston and head to Canada over the next two and a half months to deliver windmill blades to Jenner, Alberta. The largest loads are expected to measure 325 feet long and weigh 137,000 pounds.

In an email to the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, ITD spokesperson Aubrie Spence said the first load is scheduled for Wednesday.

“If all goes well, we are expecting loads moving every other night, although it could end up being any day of the week,” she said.

Nine loads will depart each week in groups of three from the Port of Lewiston and travel north on U.S. 95 to Coeur d’Alene. Three loads are expected to leave every other night, with each individual load departing approximately 30 minutes apart.

Pilot cars will escort each load. Flaggers will be in place to close roadways.

The intersection of Idaho Highway 128 and U.S. 12/U.S. 95 in Lewiston will be closed during these trips.

The two-lane section of U.S. 95 between Thorn Creek and Moscow will also be closed as loads travel through for an estimated 30 minutes each. Timing of the closures will vary but could start around 9 p.m. Traffic will be allowed to pass before each subsequent closure.

In an ITD news release, operations engineer Jared Hopkins said the vehicles carrying the windmills through that section of U.S. 95 will have to take up part of the oncoming lane.

When the vehicles are making these trips through Moscow, there will be parking restrictions starting at 6 p.m. No parking will be allowed on Washington Street north of the U.S. 95/Highway 8 intersection to where southbound and northbound U.S. 95 reconnects at the north end of Moscow.

Parking will also be prohibited near the intersection of Main and A streets.

“Given the extreme length of these loads and how narrow the highway section is in Moscow, the transport company will move each load at walking pace with staff on the ground to ensure that nothing next to the road is damaged,” Hopkins said in the news release.

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.net

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”
- Roy E. Stolworthy
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