COLUMBUS, Ohio — The first of about two dozen “super loads” is scheduled to hit the road in Ohio Wednesday morning.
The super loads will leave from a dock on the Ohio River in Manchester and be delivered to New Albany or Hebron.
The loads are heading towards Intel facilities and other companies in Licking County.
The first load will be delivered to Freepoint in Hebron, but it could take days to get there, and cause major traffic backups on the way.
The super loads can be up to 900,000 pounds, 19 feet wide and 270 feet long and will travel about five to 15 miles per hour.
“There won’t be road closures per se but it will be a rolling road block so it will move very slowly so it will in many cases take up the entire width of the road,” said ODOT Press Secretary, Matt Bruning.
ODOT is alerting drivers to pay attention to the location of the super loads and take alternate routes. ODOT will be providing updates on social media, and Bruning said people can check for traffic backups here.
“We want to minimize the inconvenience, there will be inconvenience but if we can minimize it that is the goal,” Bruning said.
First responders will also have to take alternate routes, in some cases staging personnel on either side of the route if it will block important roads.
“We are doing the exact same thing that we are doing for the public to assist them. We are creating alternative routes to know where these roads will be and at what time they will potentially be at which location so our dispatch and our control center are going to come up with alternative plans to respond,” said Sheriff Alex Lape of Fairfield County.
ODOT has already started removing overhead signs on the route to make room for the “super loads”. Traffic lights and some utilities will also have to be moved as the loads make their way through towns.
“It is not just plug into google maps get the coordination and get going there is a lot that goes into analyzing and planning for these loads to go through,” Bruning said.
ODOT estimates the process could take months. Each load could take up to eight to 15 days.
For a look at the full route, click here.