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If you want to snap a photo of two of the largest objects ever to move across the Lancaster County landscape later this summer, don't worry, they will be creeping by at a tortoise-like 2 or 3 miles per hour.
Two steam generators, each weighing about the same as two locomotives, will be pulled by the same kind of self-propelled transport that moves the space shuttle to the blastoff pad.
As they navigate the length of the county in August or September en route to the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, there will be a whole lot of commotion in front of the oversized loads.
And some municipal officials worry that, despite assurances, the huge load will cause damage to roads and what's underneath.
"The roads can't take it," frets Supervisor John May of Manor Township.
At 18 points where the convoy will cross streams and the existing bridges are too narrow, pre-fabricated temporary bridges will be erected so the convoy can "jump" over the existing spans.
At two other stream crossings, bridges will be braced with steel to withstand what the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation calls a "superload."
And, in three places — Chiques Creek and Donegal Creek in East Donegal Township and Pequea Creek in Pequea and Providence townships — new bridges will be erected and torn down several days later.
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Click here for a complete list of each location for a stream and bridge crossing).
Then there are the power lines and television cables that have to be raised during the move, causing short-term disruption to individual homes and buildings in some cases.
Twenty traffic signals have to be swung out of the way. Trees have to be trimmed or removed.
"I think there will be a lot of people who've never seen anything like this go by," says Bryan Spangler, senior technical adviser for Michael Baker Jr. Inc., the engineering consulting firm based near Pittsburgh that has been scouting this tricky overland journey for the last 18 months.
The generators are being manufactured by AREVA Inc., the world's largest nuclear plant supplier, in Paris, France.
From there, they will be shipped across the Atlantic and make their way by barge up the Chesapeake Bay. They will be unloaded from the Susquehanna River in Port Deposit, Md., and placed on Self-Propelled Mobile Transports.
The trip over land will take 20 days to go the 70 miles from Port Deposit to TMI's home in Middletown.
It's costing Exelon Nuclear, the operator of TMI, $280 million to build, transport and install the new steam generators. It's part of $350 million in improvements to keep the Unit 1 reactor operating until at least 2034. About 1,500 workers will be needed to install the steam generators.
The steam generators are large cylinders full of pipes, which serve as heat exchangers. Super-heated water created inside the pressurized-water reactor at TMI enters one side of the unit and the heat is transferred to adjacent pipes, turning water into steam to turn the turbine that produces electricity.
Most of the trip will be spent in Lancaster County.
That unprecedented transport worries some county officials. They fear the heavy loads — each steam generator and transport will be 150 feet long, 24 feet high and weigh 811 tons — will crumble road pavement, pop culverts and crack underground sewer lines.
Columbia Borough is placing a $40,000 camera in sewer main lines before and after the convoy passes by to inspect for damage.
Nonsense, says Spangler. The weight is incredible but it's being spread over 26 double-wide axles on each transport. That's a smaller distributed load than what a two-axle tractor-trailer carries, he says.
"We have been working with this for quite some time. We've taken exceptional care in everything we've been doing," Spangler says. "We do not anticipate doing damage. Being a good neighbor is a big part of this project."
AREVA has refused to reveal the planned route. Reasons cited have included security and because permits have not yet all been secured from the state and municipalities.
"We're being respectful of the municipalities," says AREVA spokeswoman Denise Woernle. "We don't want to imply we are assuming they are granting a permit. We're working with them to meet their concerns and requirements."
But some local officials complain the company has passed on little information about the move.
"It's like squeezing blood from a turnip. They won't tell us anything," says K. Scott Smith, roadmaster in Conestoga Township.
AREVA has set up presentations about the move for the public for Monday, June 8, in Columbia and Wednesday, June 10, in Quarryville. Exelon officials also will be in attendance to explain the generator replacement project at TMI.
The New Era has assembled the planned route — it is still subject to change — from AREVA's application for bridge and stream crossings in Lancaster County and from a map of the proposed route submitted to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The generators would enter Lancaster County from Chester County on Route 272 in Little Britain Township, travel Route 272 to Willow Street, head west on Long Lane, then inch south along the Conestoga River on Conestoga Boulevard.
The convoy would cross the Conestoga at Safe Harbor on River Road. From there, the procession heads north along the Susquehanna on River Road, which becomes Route 441 near Washington Boro. Route 441 will be followed through Columbia and all the way to TMI.
In Columbia, it was deemed unsafe to cross the Route 441 bridge over Route 30. Instead, a temporary ramp will take the convoy to Route 30. The rigs will cross a closed Route 30 in the middle of the night, the only time PennDOT made an exception to the requirement that the move take place from dawn to dusk.
AREVA's Woernle said previous media reports that the move will be featured on television shows such as "Mega Movers" or "Modern Marvels," are inaccurate. No one has approached the company about doing a show, she said. Besides, she added, it would be discouraged because filming could hinder the move.
Although Spangler says the move should not damage "proper pavement," AREVA has promised to repair any road surface, landscape or underground infrastructure that is damaged along the way.
In some cases, where old pavement is replaced and power lines raised to meet code requirements, the move will improve a local township's or borough's infrastructure, according to Woernle.
"Our objective here is to leave the municipalities in as good a shape as we've found them, or possibly better," she said.
PPL has already begun moving power lines along the route.
Trees along the route will be trimmed for the high and wide load. Few trees will have to be cut down, according to Spangler. One of the places they will be is in Chickies Rock County Park, though efforts were made to avoid old trees, he said.
AREVA is based in Paris. Its U.S. subsidiary that is handling the move, AREVA NP, is based in Lynchburg, Va.
MAKING THE BIG MOVE• The convoy will weigh more than 3 million pounds and stretch for more than a football field.• Temporary bridges will be placed on top of existing spans at 18 locations.• At a top speed of 3 mph, it will take 20 days to go 70 miles.MEETINGS ON TMI TRANSPORT
• Monday, June 8, 7 p.m., Columbia High School Auditorium.
• Tuesday, June 9, 7 p.m., Port Deposit, Md., VFW Hall.
• Wednesday, June 10, 7 p.m., Solanco High School Cafeteria.
• Thursday, June 11, 7:30 p.m., Conoy Township municipal office, transport officials to attend supervisors meeting.
Staff writer Ad Crable can be reached at acrable@LNPnews.com or 481-6029.
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