12/15/2010
Overnight lane restriction on I-84 near New Plymouth for heavy load Thursday night
Weather permitting, the first load will likely be moved after 10 p.m.
Thursday night. Over the next six months, as many as 14 separate pieces of equipment
will be moved from the railroad yard in New Plymouth to the site just south of
the interstate near Exit 9.
To move the heavy load, crews will use a
Self-Propelled Modular Transport (SPMT) with 16 steerable axles. Because the
SPMT is able to distribute the weight of the load over so many independent
axles, a large load like this can be moved safely. The SPMT only travels at very
low speeds, which also increases safety. It will move at a top speed of 7 mph
on the trip.
The loads are part of the Langley Gulch Power Plant project by Idaho Power. The power plant will have two turbines to generate electricity - one using natural gas and the other using steam. Emmert International is the
mover.
The loads will be transported from the center of
New Plymouth to I-84 on U.S. 30, with front and rear pilot cars and
flaggers. The flaggers will be primarily used when the transport crosses
one of the three small bridges between the town and the interstate.
To ensure the integrity of the small bridges
that the transport will travel over, the moving company will lay barge ramps
over the bridges, placed on top of blocks to spread the weight out on the
pavement leading to and from the bridges.
When the transport reaches I-84, it will have to
cross the interstate without using the overpass - the loads are too heavy for
the overpass and barge ramps are too short to work there. Instead, the transport
will use the westbound on-ramp to get on the freeway in the right lane. It will
then enter the left lane, which will be closed to traffic. The transport
will proceed westbound for a short distance in the closed lane and use a
maintenance crossover to move to the eastbound side of the interstate. The
left lane on the eastbound side will also be closed to traffic. The transport
will then use the eastbound off-ramp at Exit 9.
The Idaho State Police will assist with
the move via U.S. 30, and from the ramp to the closed lanes on I-84 by using a rolling
slowdown of interstate traffic on each side as the transport travels from
one side of the freeway to the other. Patrol units will drive slowly in
both lanes with lights flashing, purposefully delaying traffic behind them during
the move.
Message boards on both sides of the
freeway prior to the area of impact will be used to warn traffic of the
slowdown and left-lane closures.