Proposed 21-foot-wide load would stop traffic, take more than 12 hours, and modify the road or vegetation on U.S. Highway 12

The U.S. Forest Service is advising the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) to steer a pending megaload away from the wild and scenic river corridor along U.S. Highway 12, until the state and federal agency develop formal protocols to deal with massively oversized rigs.

The state is considering an application from the transportation company Omega Morgan to move a 255-foot-long and 21-foot-wide water purification vessel weighing 644,000 pounds from the Port of Lewiston to the Idaho/Montana state line near Lolo Pass via the scenic byway.  The narrow, two-lane highway passes through the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest and travels along the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River and the Lochsa River, which are both part of the National Wild and Scenic River System.

Earlier this year, federal Judge B. Lynn Winmill of Boise ruled the Forest Service has authority to review the state’s approval of megaload shipments that pass through national forest land and in particular those that would affect wild and scenic river corridors.  The agency had argued in court that it lacked such authority.

But the judge didn’t define what a megaload is or say how much authority the agency has over the shipments. Continue reading →

Two megaloads reached Montana after a 172-mile journey on U.S. Highway 12 in north central Idaho.

Both extra-big shipments left Idaho sometime late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, said Idaho Transportation Department spokesman Adam Rush in Boise.

One load started the night at Kooskia and the other was just 12 miles west of the Montana state line, Rush said.

“It did not have far to go at all,” he said.

One load was originally expected to leave the Port of Wilma just after 10 pm on Monday and reach the Montana state line by 5:30 am on Tuesday.

The other was supposed to follow, starting just after 10 pm on Tuesday. Continue reading →

Overlegal equipment shipments were planned to move along U.S. Highway 12 on Monday and Tuesday nights, December 3 and 4, pending weather, according to the Idaho Transportation Department.

Omega Morgan is transporting two shipments – water purification vessels – to Montana from 10 pm to 5:30 am, scheduled to take one night each to reach the Idaho/Montana state line.  One load will travel each night.

Activists with Wild Idaho Rising Tide were planning monitoring and protest activities during transport.

(By Idaho County Free Press, Grangeville)

First load has stopped at Kooskia; second load was scheduled to leave Port of Wilma on Tuesday night

Plans have changed for a pair of megaloads being hauled across Idaho on U.S. Highway 12 this week.

The first load left the Port of Wilma just west of Clarkston on Monday evening.  It reached Kooskia early Tuesday.  The transport of water purification equipment was originally scheduled to travel as far as the Montana border by Tuesday morning, and the Idaho Transportation Department had no explanation for what prevented the shipment from going farther.

Weather sometimes stops megaloads.  Temperatures were in the low 30s with no precipitation at Powell, when the megaload was traveling.  Powell is frequently the place where conditions are among the most extreme on the route to Montana, because of its high elevation.

The second load was still anticipated to start its journey on Tuesday night and reach milepost 160, just two miles west of Powell, before 5:30 am today, said transportation department spokesman Adam Rush in Boise.

If crews had extra time, they were going to go back to Kooskia and start moving the first megaload to an unannounced stopping point, Rush said. Continue reading →

Over-sized shipments will begin their move from the Lewis-Clark Valley to the Montana border on Monday night on U.S. Highway 12.

Omega Morgan is transporting two water purification vessels.  The vessels, which weigh 80,000 pounds, are scheduled to take one night each to reach the state line.

Read more and view the video: Delays Expected on U.S. Highway 12 for Over-Sized Loads

(By Sophia Miraglio, KLEW TV Lewiston)

Listen to the Monday, December 3, 2012, KRFP Radio Free Moscow Evening Report, Assenberg Rejects Pot Plea, between 5:20 and 3:33, to learn about the second and third Alberta tar sands equipment shipments to traverse wild and scenic Highway 12, two wastewater evaporator components hauled by Omega Morgan.

This is what the latest round of megaloads looks like (The Lewiston Tribune/Elaine Williams photo).

The latest round of megaloads are parked at the Port of Wilma, just west of Clarkston.

The first of the two is scheduled to leave tonight at about 10 pm and make it to the Montana border early Tuesday morning.

Assuming that happens without a hitch, the second will leave Tuesday also at about 10 pm.  Like the other, it is expected to make it across Idaho on U.S. Highway 12 in a single segment of travel.  That trip would end early Wednesday morning.

It is their width that makes these shipments megaloads.  They are wide enough to consume almost two lanes of traffic, but at about 50 feet, they are about as long as a standard semi truck. Continue reading →

First oversized load could leave Clarkston on Monday

Two megaloads carrying water purification vessels may be traveling through north central Idaho soon if the weather cooperates.

Transport company Omega Morgan plans to move the first shipment from the Port of Wilma just west of Clarkston to the Idaho/Montana border on U.S. Highway 12, according to a news release issued Friday by the Idaho Transportation Department.

The journey would start as early as about 10 pm on Monday and end no later than 5:30 am on Tuesday.

It appears that road conditions could vary significantly on the trip.  The National Weather Service predicts a 20-percent chance of rain and temperatures in the 40s on Monday in Clarkston.

The low at Powell, near the Montana state line, is expected to be 25 degrees on Monday evening under mostly cloudy skies, after a day where the possibility of snow is 80 percent.

The second shipment is expected to move on a different evening and take a similar amount of time to cover the roughly 170 miles between Clarkston and the Montana border.  No information on a date for that shipment has been supplied by the transportation department. Continue reading →

TWO MORE TAR SANDS MEGALOADS ON HIGHWAY 12 ON MONDAY & TUESDAY

We received this news release today and will provide monitoring and protesting prompts soon:

Equipment shipments may travel on U.S. 12 starting Monday

Read more: Update on Tar Sands Megaloads in the Northern Rockies

(Cross-Posted on Earth First! Newswire from Wild Idaho Rising Tide facebook page)