A massive piece of oilsands equipment being hauled from Lloydminster to the Fort McKay area will close down sections of highways during five nights of travel from July 30 to Aug. 3. On Aug.
A massive piece of oilsands equipment being hauled from Lloydminster to the Fort McKay area will close down sections of highways during five nights of travel from July 30 to Aug. 3.
On Aug. 1, the load will pass near Athabasca, closing down parts of Highway 63, Highway 663 and Highway 55 sometime between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
People planning to travel in the area are advised to take alternate routes that evening.
“What makes this vessel different is that it ’s going to be about 40 feet wide and 42 feet high, ” said Dan Killin, a project coordinator for Entrec, the company that will be hauling the equipment.
Alberta Transportation usually limits loads to 24-foot constraints, said Killin. Anything larger is referred to as a “super vessel. ”
“It ’s big. It ’s really big, ” confirmed Trent Bancarz, a spokesperson with Alberta Transportation. “There ’s parts of the trip where it ’s going to take the whole highway up. ”
Killin declined to reveal what the load was.
“It looks like a giant water tower, ” he described.
Bancarz confirmed the load is an IPS, or inclined plate settler.An IPS can be used to process and clean diluted bitumen. It is a giant vessel full of parallel, spaced apart plates that incline downwards. Bitumen is distributed into spaces between the plates, and the light components of the diluted bitumen make their way up the plates to the top of the vessel while the heavier components sink downward and follow the slope of the plates to the bottom of the unit.
Bancarz added that the IPS unit would be empty during the trip.
“Nothing ’s that ’s dangerous goods comes in something that big, ” he said.
Bancarz said loads this large require a permit. The price of the permit is calculated using a formula that factors in the weight of the load and the distance travelled.
The permit for this load cost more than $3,000, said Bancarz. He added that the owners of the load or the hauling company may also pay for an RCMP escort.
Bancarz acknowledged the inconvenience to the public a load like this presents, saying this, too, must be considered.
“It ’s a balance of course, and unfortunately it ’s almost the only way these can be moved. ”
He confirmed there is no way the load could be divided into smaller pieces.
The load will be hauled primarily along a designated high-load corridor. The corridor features accommodating infrastructure like overhead signage on rotating bases that can be swung out of the way, as well as guardrails that can be moved.
Bancarz added that the new twinning of sections of Highway 63 will create extra-wide shoulders that big loads will be able to use.
Entrec plans to move 14 such loads over the next year, though Bancarz said depending how the first trip goes, Entrec may be allowed to move more than one unit at a time. All travel will take place at night.
A full itinerary for the load ’s trip and schedule of road closures is available at www.safer63and881.com.
