A 260-ton piece of equipment is winding its way through the inland Northwest this week. The Idaho Department of Transportation gave the green light to a shipper moving water purification equipment into Canada.
The shipment is about the same size as the so-called “megaloads.” Those were pieces of an oil processing facility headed for Canada’s oil sands. The new shipment will use the same hotly contested scenic route –- Idaho’s Highway 12.
Brett Haverstick is with the group Friends of the Clearwater in Moscow, Idaho. He says he first heard about this new shipment last week.
“It’s very troubling," he says. "It doesn’t matter if it’s a 500,000-pound bubble gum machine or a megaload going up to the tar sands. It’s not what is being shipped up. It’s the size of it.” The shipment is 236 feet long and takes up two lanes of traffic.
A spokesman for the Idaho Department of Transportation says the agency did not hold public hearings on this one-time shipment. He also said the department doesn’t know who owns the cargo.
The “megaload” will travel at night with the help of flaggers and pilot vehicles. Delays may not exceed 15 minutes for the travelers stuck behind the huge truck.
Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network