Idaho has been losing $645,000 a year administering oversize-load permits including those for so-called megaloads, Lewiston Tribune reporter Bill Spence reported today; the news came out when an ITD official briefed a legislative committee on pending ITD rules, which include fee increases designed to try to wipe out that deficit. “We’re required to recoup the administrative cost of running the program,” ITD official Regina Phipps told the Senate Transportation Committee; you can read Spence’s full post of ITD Loses $645,000 Annually on Oversize Load Permits at his “Political Theater” blog.

(By Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise, The Spokesman-Review)

One of many Imperial Oil megaloads sits at the Port of Lewiston last summer (The Lewiston Tribune/Barry Kough photo).

Idaho has spent nearly $200,000, but more than half will be reimbursed

The Idaho Transportation Department has disclosed $190,012 in expenses related to megaloads during 2011, a year where 79 of the shipments traveled on U.S. highways 12 and 95.

More than half the total expenditures, or $107,490, was for snow and ice removal and is being reimbursed by the companies that hired the megaload trucking firms, according to an email from ITD spokesman Adam Rush.

The companies hauling the oversized loads also paid $27,158 for permits.

The first of four ConocoPhillips megaloads dwarfs a large highway sign, as it snakes its way east on the frontage road along U.S. Highway 12 in North Lewiston last year (The Lewiston Tribune/Kyle Mills photo).

ITD indicated it was impossible to segregate expenses in at least two key areas. Continue reading →

Imperial Oil photo of a truck hauling a prefabricated module used in the construction of the Kearl tar sands plant

Imperial counting on April arrival of stalled equipment

CALGARY — Imperial Oil says getting its $10.9-billion Kearl oilsands mining project started by the end of 2012 as scheduled depends on delivery in the next three months of 85 modules delayed in the United States.

On a webcast from a conference in Whistler, B.C., Imperial president and chief executive Bruce March said Thursday he’s optimistic the project will start on time.

“The Kearl initial development is now about 87 per cent complete and we continue to be on track for a start-up in late 2012,” he said.

Read more: Time Running Out for Kearl Module Deliveries

(By Dan Healing, Calgary Herald)

LEWISTON — Imperial Oil approved an expansion for its processing plant under construction in the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada.

The move raises the possibility of additional megaloads on north central Idaho’s roads, even though many of the details of the project are still being hammered out.

About 200 of the 1,200 components needed for the processing plant, scheduled to be completed this year, are being manufactured in Korea, said Pius Rolheiser, a spokesman for Imperial Oil. Continue reading →