Ross and Pickaway Counties and the Scioto Valley — If the “Superloads” that have come up from the Ohio River this year to two construction sites in Central Ohio have gotten commonplace, this almost 300-foot third version of them should satisfy.
Matt Bruning, press secretary for the Ohio Department of Transportation, explains in the below interview video that the upcoming four superloads coming up the Scioto Valley are bigger and slower that the previous ones – about five miles an hour slow. And, they will start moving earlier, and cover fewer miles.
As the Ohio Department of Transportation has posted for the first one:
This is the twelfth of nearly two dozen “super loads” that will make their way from a dock on the Ohio River near Manchester in Adams County to New Albany in Licking County. This load, an air processor known as a cold box used in the silicon chip manufacturing process, measures approximately 23’ tall, 20’ wide, 280’ long, and weighs 916,000 pounds.
The move is scheduled to take more than a week. It will make stops in West Portsmouth, Lucasville, Waverly, Chillicothe, Rickenbacker, Groveport, Pickerington, and Pataskala, before being delivered on Tuesday, June 25.
The trip for Superload 12 already began on Sunday, and it will move through Scioto County on Monday. Only on Wednesday will it enter Ross County, overnighting near the fairgrounds.
But instead of being backed out from Fairgrounds Road in the morning like previous superloads, apparently it will be parked on old right-of-way beside renovated State Route 104. Wood flats have been set out on the former roadway just north of State Route 207 northbound, on the other side from the one-room schoolhouse.
On Thursday, Superload 12 is planned to move through Pickaway County to overnight at Rickenbacker airport.
Find many photos and a few videos of the start of this trip on Matt Bruning’s News Facebook page – he’s keeping close tabs on this one.
Bruning said spectating is welcome – but do it safely and keep your distance, and realize that segments of highways may be closed off for a while. Camp Sherman Memorial Park just north of Chillicothe where we spoke would be ideal, to watch the superloads come off US 35 onto State Route 104 north.
And what is the ultimate plan for these four monstrosities? Bruning shared a rendering that shows them going vertical in the middle of the new Intel plant:
