By Karen Blackledge
DANVILLE – An oversized load hauling a windmill base made it out of Danville after 16 days, but not before snarling traffic for one and a half hours Tuesday.
The truck tractor got onto the Danville-Riverside Bridge but couldn’t maneuver the trailer load until adjustments were made.
The load had been sitting on Front Street since Oct. 26 after getting hung up trying to turn onto the bridge.
Traffic on Tuesday came to a halt in parts of Danville and for those wanting to cross the bridge at 8:45 a.m. The load, which had received an updated permit from PennDOT in order to move, traveled across the bridge at 10:10 a.m.
As the load was heading across the bridge, one man called, “Good-bye. Get out of Danville .”
The load, which originated in Canada , was heading to West Virginia .
Traffic began moving on Mill Street and through the bridge tunnel after the load traveled across the span.
Dave Lewis, a driver for Leighow Oil Co. of Danville, got stuck in traffic when the load became grounded the first time in Danville . That time, he had to turn his truck around and drive through Sunbury to make his delivery.
On Tuesday, he couldn’t turn the rig around in the tunnel leading to the bridge.
He was first in line in the tunnel waiting to cross the bridge Tuesday morning. Lewis was headed to Shamokin. “One more minute and I would have made it across,” he said of avoiding the load.
Valley Township resident Judy West was scheduled to pick up a relative for a Geisinger Medical Center colon screening. When traffic ground to a halt, she called the man, in his 80s, and he walked across the bridge from Riverside so he could make his appointment.
The wide load driver first drove straight onto Front Street and then backed up onto Front Street with the trailer holding the 150-foot-long 100-ton windmill base.
After the truck tractor, from Universal Am-Can Ltd., turned onto the bridge and close to the right side of the bridge, the driver stopped.
At one point, a one-inch bolt fell off the top of the trailer when the driver and the lead escort driver were trying to adjust the load. The bolt hit a woman in the hand. She was driving the van, a Universal Am-Can, which followed the load.
The driver disconnected the tractor from the load in order to shorten the turning radius, Danville Police Chief Eric Gill said. That move eventually worked.
People gathered at the Danville bridge entrance at Front Street and Route 54 and also on the bridge to watch.
Gill drove a cruiser behind the load as it crossed the bridge.
Other Danville officers were also at the scene as was Mahoning Township Police Chief David Shope.
The load was grounded on Front Street after a part was damaged on the rear turning axle and had to be replaced. A flat tire also had to be repaired.
A crane had to be brought in to move the load onto Front Street after it hit a tree and a curb. The bridge was closed for six hours that day.
-- E-mail comments to kblackledge@thedanvillenews.com.
