New megaloads to trundle through Missoula after dark

Megaload of mill equipment en route to Missoula

By KIM BRIGGEMAN of the Missoulian


The first of six giant loads of evaporator equipment bound for a Weyerhauser forest products mill in Grande Prairie, Alberta, is scheduled to inch its way into Montana on U.S. Highway 12 late Thursday night.

The initial megaload, transported by Nickel Brothers of Everett, Wash., is roughly 24 wide, 25 feet high and 182 feet long, according to the moving company's website, nickelbros.com.

It reportedly arrived at a turnout on the Idaho side of Lolo Pass on Sunday. The load will travel only at night after 10 p.m. in six stages through Montana to the Port of Sweetgrass. Its route through western Montana will be along Highway 12 to Lolo, through Missoula on Highway 93 and Reserve Street to Interstate 90, and up the Blackfoot River corridor on Highway 200 to Rogers Pass.

Nickel Brothers has already delivered seven narrower loads to Canada along the same route. The one coming is the first of this width to cross Lolo Pass since a test validation module owned by Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil arrived in the state on May 4. It remains parked at Lolo Hot Springs while a legal battle rages over the Canadian company's use of the same route the Nickel Brothers loads are following.

The Weyerhauser evaporators are being transported from the Port of Wilma in Washington, just downstream from the Port of Lewiston, Idaho. The equipment is for a high-efficiency evaporator plant designed to reduce greenhouse gases and generate electricity from steam.