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A “test module” for the planned transport of hundreds of megaloads of Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil oil equipment across U.S. Highway 12 in north-central Idaho knocked out power for five hours last night to the towns of Pierce and Wieppe, and blocked traffic on the highway for an hour. Click below for a full report from the Lewiston Tribune and the Associated Press.
Oversized oil load blamed for outage in ID towns
LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — One of the heaviest truckloads to ever travel across U.S. Highway 12 in northern Idaho was blamed for knocking out power to hundreds of residents and delaying traffic longer than allowed by state transportation officials.
Idaho officials say the rig carrying Imperial Oil's oversized shipment of refinery equipment clipped and snapped a guy wire for a high-voltage power line, setting off a chain reaction that shorted a power line and cut the electricity Monday night to 1,300 customers in the towns of Pierce and Wieppe.
The oversized load was also blamed for snapping a tree branch and at one point for delaying traffic for an hour, which is three times longer than was allowed under the state's permit.
“No one was hurt,” said Pius Rolheiser, a spokesman for Imperial Oil, told the Lewiston Tribune Tuesday.
The oil company was conducting a test trip for the equipment, which departed Lewiston on the first leg of a weeks-long journey across Idaho, through Montana, to the oil sands in southern Alberta, Canada.
The Idaho Transportation Department ordered the load to stay put at a turnout 12 miles west of Kooskia until the trucking contractor can file a report.
The rig weighs 490,000 pounds, stands three stories tall and 24 feet wide and stretches roughly 250 feet long from the pull truck to the push truck. It is the biggest load ever to traverse one of the state's most scenic stretches of highway.
“We're going to do everything we can to accomplish this move safely and flawlessly,” Rolheiser said moments before the 245-ton load left Lewiston.
Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp., wants to use the scenic roadway to haul dozens of similar loads across Idaho, into Montana and north to the Kearl Oil Sands.
Officials in Idaho and Montana issued permits for the test run before deciding how to handle the dozens of other proposed shipments.
Conservation groups and residents who live along the route have sued in federal court to block the shipments. That includes the Idaho Rivers United's lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service.
The group accuses the forest service of shirking its duties to protect the corridor from activities that could threaten the environment or its status as a federal Wild and Scenic River designation.
Kevin Lewis, Idaho River United conservation director, said the group has no plans to actively monitor the Imperial load.
Lewis said Highway 12, which runs along the Clearwater and Lochsa rivers, is part of a corridor known for its wildlife, scenery and recreation that will suffer from the presence of the massive trucks.
“That's not an appropriate place for those kinds of loads,” Lewis said.
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Information from: Lewiston Tribune, http://www.lmtribune.com
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RedCedar on April 12 at 11:43 p.m.
It’s bad enough to be stuck behind a real megaload. It would really burn me to be stuck for hours behind this fake megaload. These loads aren’t going to damage the river or kill any endangered species, and suing US government agencies over them is the wrong way to fight the Alberta oil industry, but they are just plain too big and too disruptive to too many people.
People have forgotten it, but US 12 was built to be a transport route, not a scenic drive. It was part of a political boondoggle that, combined with the Snake River dams, was supposed to make Lewiston a major port for midwestern grain. Some say it was a federal sop thrown to Idaho in exchange for the feds building the INEL. Regardless of the exact back-room dealing, using it to haul heavy loads is in line with the original thinking for that highway. That doesn’t make it a good thing, though, and it certainly doesn’t mean that arbitrarily large loads must be allowed. At this point, it would be simply unfair (and would probably subject the state to a lawsuit it would lose) to change the rules and ban the loads that have already been built, and in some cases delivered to Lewiston. That doesn’t mean the rules for future oversize permits can’t be changed, though.
The reasonable way to resolve this is to set new rules for megaloads that keep them to a small enough size that there is always room for traffic to pass and that will not catch on trees and wires. That would likely reduce them to perhaps half the size of what they’re wanting to move now. That won’t satisfy the activists who want to use this as a proxy fight against the oil industry, but it will alleviate most of the real inconveniences to people living and working along the route. Once the engineers who are designing these big machines know what the absolute size and weight limit on US 12 is, they can either design the machines in smaller pieces or figure out a different way to transport them. The key is to provide predictable rules, and write those rules so the megaloads aren’t excessively inconvenient to local residents, other truckers, and tourists.
straighttalk on April 13 at 8:54 a.m.
The main problem is these are not just oversize loads; they are rolling roadblocks converting US 12 from Lewiston to Missoula as their private road. Even local and area truckers have to change and modify or reroute their trucks because of these rolling roadblocks. All for a $1,000 oversize permit. The permit costs should be raised significantly just to cover the damage that will without question result. A $10m bond is a joke; good luck collecting on such a bond as it would mean a court case to recoup any of the damage costs, etc.
It would be fine if the area impacted did not depend on US 12 for just ordinary day to day usage. This road is the only way for many people to get to and from school, work and personal needs such as medical care.
With the road blocked for an hour, it was fortunate there was not an medical emergency.
Four years of planning by ITD with 4 years of Idaho tax payer funds for out of state and foreign business interest all at the cost of Idaho citizens is nothing more than screwing over Idaho citizens. ITD and the powers that be forcing this to make it happen should be taken to task. Hopeful the federal lawsuit filed by the previous ITD director sheds light on why, how and when this all came about.
Other similar loads are being transported from Vancouver to the Tar Sands so US 12 is not the only route. Likewise, all the rhetoric about the size was imperative. Well, the size has now been cut in too and still is a problem. We’ve been lied to and lied to constantly in this debacle.