By Andrew Shepherd

Giant equipment won’t damage Sask. highways

Nov 18, 2014 | 6:39 AM

The journey continues Tuesday for the biggest piece of machinery to ever travel on Saskatchewan highways.

Two industrial evaporator units are on their way from Melville, over to Highway 2 and south to the K+S potash mine being developed off Highway 11 near Bethune. However, despite weighing 208,617 kilograms – or 459,921 pounds – the roads beneath them are not expected to be damaged in any way.

Joel Cherry with the ministry of highways explained that’s because the massive pieces of equipment are being carried on two, double-wide trailers which have 192 tires to distribute the weight.

“The amount of weight that’s actually being transferred to the road isn’t much more than a loaded semi would have,” said Cherry.

The other question is the weight-bearing ability of the only bridge the evaporators have to cross in the valley on Highway 2. Cherry explained in that case, the full weight isn’t going to be on the bridge because the trailers are long enough that they don’t entirely fit on the bridge at any given time.

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The biggest impact to traffic will be on Highway 11 but the equipment will only travel down the busy road for six or seven kilometres on Tuesday. Cherry explained once the trailers turn off Highway 2, the fleet of vehicles travelling with them will perform a rolling blockade which will slow down traffic.

Based on Monday’s 140-kilometre trip from Melville to Raymore, which took six-and-a-half hours, drivers can expect to slow down to about 22 km/h for the short stretch on Highway 11.

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