The Idaho Transportation Department yesterday issued a permit for the second ConcocoPhillips megaload to travel on U.S. Highway 12 in north-central Idaho, and this morning, ITD reports that the load began moving last night and "arrived safely today at a pullout two miles west of Orofino at approximately 4 a.m." The permit for the second load came after ITD approved the company's new plan to reduce traffic delays. During the company's first megaload shipment, numerous delays longer than the permitted 15 minutes occurred, including one of nearly an hour. The loads are so wide they block both lanes of the twisting, two-lane highway.

ITD said the revised plan calls for taking two nights, rather than one, to travel between Orofino and Kooskia; seven trucking companies that use the route at night have agreed to rearrange their schedules to avoid the megaload; the loads will now have seven nights to travel from Lewiston to the Montana line; and "to better negotiate curves through this section, the load will be manually steered. This method allows sharper turns. It is similar to the steering used on longer fire engines."