The "test validation module" for more than 200 megaloads proposed for U.S. Highway 12 by Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil reached Montana this morning, the Idaho Transportation Department reports. The test shipment left milepost 169.1 on the road at three minutes after midnight, and reached the top of Lolo Pass at 12:38 a.m., where it waited until 1:30 a.m. to enter Montana, per a state requirement there. ITD reports that the test megaload traveled through light snowfall but the highway remained clear; it encountered no traffic on the final 35-minute leg of its trip.

The test megaload, which is designed to match the tallest, longest and widest of the huge, three-story-tall loads that take up both lanes of the two-lane road, left Lewiston on April 11, but struck a guy wire its first night, knocking out power to two Idaho towns and leading to a delay of more than two weeks, while 16 utility lines were raised along the route and extensive tree-trimming conducted 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 due to inclement weather until last night.

The loads are scheduled to travel in specified stages taking a total of three days each, though that's not how it worked out for the test module; ITD rules require them to delay traffic no more than 15 minutes, though delays so far, from both the Exxon test load and two ConocoPhillips megaloads that traveled earlier, have stretched up to an hour. A contested-case hearing on the Exxon plan is under way at ITD; after two full days of testimony Monday and Tuesday, it's now on a break and will resume Friday.