Of megaloads, lawsuits, legislation, and alternate routes…

Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on how St. Maries Rep. Dick Harwood introduced legislation Wednesday designed to impose huge bonding requirements on anyone who sues to block a megaload - or anything else - from traveling on Idaho’s highways. Meanwhile,  megaloads opponents today filed a petition asking ITD to reconsider its initial approval of 207 proposed megaloads that ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil plan to send across Highway 12, now that the company has begun modifying many of the loads to allow them to be trucked to Alberta, Canada via the interstate system instead.

Highway 12 resident Borg Hendrickson said, “Throughout 2010, Exxon/Imperial repeatedly told Idahoans that no alternative route existed for these massive loads, but now 60 of them are being shipped from Vancouver via an alternative route and 30 more are also going to be shipped via an alternative route,” after modifications as they sit in Lewiston. “ITD’s decision needs to be based on real facts, and our petition, in effect, asks ITD to step back and get those facts.” You can read the petition here .