<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With thanks to Ellen, a friend and anti-megaload voice.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Courtesy of <a href="http://koin.com/">KOIN.com</a> (Portland, Oregon) at:</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">(with video)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.koin.com/news/clackamas-county/transformer-closes-i-205-ramps" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.koin.com/news/clackamas-county/transformer-closes-i-205-ramps</font></a></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">---------------------------------</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Transformer load topples at I-205</span></font></h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stuck transformer closed I-205 ramps for hours</span></p><div class="meta-data" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">GLADSTONE, Ore. (KOIN) – A massive transformer that was being transported overnight Monday became stuck in Gladstone, blocking access to a busy freeway.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;">The 660,000-pound transformer came to rest on SE 82nd Drive, blocking the northbound on and off ramps to Interstate 205.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"If it would have kept going," said a witness, "it would have been disastrous."<br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;">The transformer began its move <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://2" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="2">at 11 p.m. Monday night</a>, said Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Don Hamilton. But it wasn't until nearly a full day later that the last of the load was back on the road.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"It is a surprise," said Terry M. Emmert, senior vice president with Emmert International at the scene. "We don't know what caused the failure yet, but we're here to get it fixed and keep this transformer moving to its next destination."</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The transformer was making a 4-and-a-half-mile trip from Oregon City to a rail yard in Clackamas. This is the first of three transformers set to make the overnight trip.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">However, on this first trip the Emmert International truck transporting the transformer had problems making a turn when a rear axle pin broke. As the axle started to steer away from the load, the wheels tilted up. The transformer itself, suspended on the transport, never hit the ground.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;">When an axle pin breaks, "what happens is the steering stays in the direction it's pointed, so it made it about three feet further before we stopped it," Emmert said. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">ODOT reports crews had to bring in a crane to move it, loading the equivalent of eight fully-loaded semi trucks. Nearby I-205 ramps were closed through <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://3" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3">Tuesday afternoon</a>; the transformer was finally moved from 82nd Drive around <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://4" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="4">5 p.m.</a></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Emmert is no stranger to large transport. The Clackamas, Ore., transport company is the one that brought <a href="http://www.evergreenmuseum.org/the-museum/aircraft-exhibits/the-spruce-goose/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">the Spruce Goose</a> to Oregon.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On the next transformer trip, Emmert said, "we'll make sure those pins are safe to be utilitized. But that's really the only thing that could go wrong. And unfortunately it happened today."</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A massive transformer that was being transported overnight Monday is stuck in Gladstone, blocking access to a busy freeway. KOIN's Lisa Balick reporting.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img src="cid:64EAF616-131C-4A14-8D62-74F09EDA6405" alt="image.jpeg" id="64EAF616-131C-4A14-8D62-74F09EDA6405" width="647" height="354"></span></p></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">---------------------------------</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is no longer, nor has it ever been, a matter of "if" . . . only "when" and "at what cost".</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" </span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still </span></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill <br>If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><font style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon<br></font><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></div></div></body></html>