Megaloads Travel Through Montana's Capital City

(Helena, MT – Jackie Yamanaka, YPR) – Early Wednesday morning, the big rigs hauling equipment to a Billings, Montana oil refinery crossed through the second major city on its route.

A big rig makes its way through Helena (photo by Jackie Yamanaka)

Megaloads have been described as "heavier than the Statue of Liberty, nearly as long as a football field, wider than the roads that they’re actually traveling on, and three stories high."  Their use has sparked some controversy over whether they sufficiently compensate the state for the wear and tear they cause on roadways.

Unlike the trip through Missoula which drew a crowd of several hundred and resulted in the arrest of one protester, only a handful of people watched the 2 coke drum shipments cross through a major intersection in Helena, Montana’s capital city. The big rigs were able to shoot a gap between the traffic lights. The signals did not have to be dismantled or pivoted out of the way. Utility crews in bucket trucks held up the utility lines so the rigs could pass.

(photo by Jackie Yamanaka)

“That was cool,” says Jim Whitehead. The Helena resident waited nearly four hours for the big rigs to shoot the gap between traffic lights at this intersection.

He says curiosity brought him out on this rainy and windy night to watch the two megaloads bound for the ConocoPhillips refinery in Billings, Montana.

A heavy haul truck pulled the load from the front while another pushes from the back. The company’s fact sheet says the rigs are 226 feet long, 29 feet wide, 28 feet high, and weigh approximately 300 tons.

“That’s just amazing,”  says Whitehead. “I had no idea they could move things that big on a street.”

About 30 people are traveling with the big rigs. This includes the transport company, Emmert International, traffic control vehicles, Montana Highway Patrol officers, numerous utility trucks, and others.

This is the first of two loads. The remaining shipments are awaiting transport to the ConocoPhillips Refinery in Billings at the Port of Lewiston, Idaho.

This is the first of a series of megaloads to be transported through Montana. ExxonMobil has loads also in Lewiston, ID bound for the oil tar sand fields in Alberta, Canada.

Protesters are trying to stop these shipments.