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The packed stone path led down the south bank of the Pequea Creek, crossed the water and angled auspiciously toward a roadside sign that read: "Jesus is Coming. Are you ready?"
Well, Jesus may or may not detour around the Route 272 bridge this month.
But the generators will soon be on their way.
Two enormous replacement steam generators, that is, bound for Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Middletown.
Workers are building temporary stream crossings to shuttle the behemoths across the Pequea, Chickies and Donegal creeks.
At two dozen more places, they're installing braces and temporary steel "overbridges" that transfer the generators' weight to road surfaces supported by soil.
To be offloaded this week from barges at Port Deposit, Md., the white, 74-foot-long generators look quite like moon rocket stages. They'll form the heart of a mile-long convoy that will enter Lancaster County via Route 272 in Little Britain Township and wind slowly north through the countryside.
The mammoth machinery will hang right at Wakefield, crawl on to Willow Street and then continue west to the Conestoga River at Safe Harbor.
It'll end up at TMI by traversing Route 441 through Washington Boro, Columbia, Marietta, Bainbridge and Falmouth.
The procession is expected to start Sunday, Sept. 13, and reach TMI Wednesday, Sept. 30, weather permitting, according to Denise Woernle, spokeswoman for AREVA Inc., the manufacturer of the generators.
The route, and those along it, were in varying states of readiness last Wednesday.
Some merchants were worrying that the rolling roadblocks accompanying the convoy will deflect potential customers.
Columbia Borough officials have said previously that they plan to use a $40,000 underground camera to check for possible utility line damage caused by the move.
One man, critical of TMI since the nuclear accident there in 1979, questioned why the new generators weren't put in decades sooner (please see related story, Page A11).
Questions and consternation aside, folks all along the 70-mile corridor said they expect to witness what's likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime event.
"We're going to find out where it's at and sit and watch it," said Dawn Althoff, who was lunching with her 4-year-old daughter, Renee, at the Valley View Restaurant in Drumore Township.
"It's going to be interesting."
Massive moveThe generators were manufactured near Dijon, France, and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean.
Thought to be the biggest pieces of freight ever to be lugged across the county, they weigh 510 tons apiece and will be moved using custom-made 310-ton carriers, each with 26 double-wide axles.
The self-propelled carriers will travel at a prudent 3 mph or less, and the operation will be conducted during daylight hours only.
Woernle said the road route was determined after a couple of years of study that ruled out such options as rail.
Minimal disturbance to host communities was a key planning goal, she said.
But, she cautioned, "there will be some power interruptions" as crews lower wires to the ground in advance of the convoy and restore them in its wake.
Residents should check with their utility to see if they might be affected, Woernle added.
The generators' overland leg begins at Tome's Landing Marina, managed by Dave Read and Jack Conrad, in Port Deposit.
The shipyard-turned-power-boating-center drowsed in the sun Wednesday while a gentle wind stirred river water against the wooden dock.
Employee Leslie Matz predicted the place will be "pretty much in lockdown" when the big rig arrives.
Bringing what the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation deems a "superload" ashore at Port Deposit was logical because it's the northernmost point freight can be barged upriver, Read said.
"We have pretty deep water" close in, added Read, who noted that his gas docks will be shunted aside Monday night prior to the arrival of the first generator Tuesday.
The second machine will be floated up separately and should get there the next day, according to Woernle.
A Port Deposit municipal official said the generators will be trundled a short distance south on Route 222 — avoiding the town's historic streets and a tight road junction with Route 276 — and then guided north to the Pennsylvania border.
According to a tentative schedule posted late last week by AREVA, the giants will cross the state line via Route 272 on Sept. 14.
They'll raise the Route 372 junction at the Buck and cross the Pequea Creek Sept. 17 and reach the Willow Street area the next day.
A turn onto River Road will be made Sept. 21, and the first generator will be brought over the Conestoga River.
The second machine will make the crossing the following day, according to AREVA. The convoy will then head north again and spend much of Friday, Sept. 25, zigzagging through Columbia Borough via Front, Bridge, Linden and Second streets.
Then comes a special Saturday night crossing of Route 30 (Sept. 26), the journey up Route 441 to Marietta (Sept. 28) and the finish line.
Last week, Route 272 spanning the Octoraro Creek remained closed; a road crew has reportedly been installing jacks and steel beams beneath the 220-foot triple span bridge.
Farther up the transport route, at Solanco Market & Deli near Wakefield, a straw-hatted Amish shopkeeper said the impending calvacade up the highway probably won't hurt his business.
"As long as side roads aren't closed, he said, "I'm not worried about it."
Kim Church and Linda Kilgore, sisters-in-law whose family runs the Valley View Restaurant, were less sanguine.
"We might end up shutting down" and declare a cleaning day until the convoy clears out, Church said.
Regulars know how to get to the eatery without using the highway, Kilgore said, but vacationers who cut through the area on their way to the beach would not.
Owen Groff, who was eating at the counter, said he expects no disruption at his nearby Scotland Road business, Groff & Groff Lumber.
Delivery trucks can get in and out on alternate routes, said Groff, who took a practical view of the generator transport project.
"What's got to be done has got to be done," he said.
Come hill or high water.
A man checking out at the True Value hardware store register in the Buck jerked a thumb over his shoulder and said horsing the ponderous generators over Buck hill might be entertaining to observe.
"I just want to see the tractors they have pulling these things," he said.
Wayne Fichter, who was running the register, predicted that "People will be lined up with cameras, I'm sure."
Meanwhile, preparations along the transport corridor continued.
At Marticville Road and Long Lane, Pequea Township, a trio of scarlet-shirted Verizon crewmen had set up a bucket truck to get at low-hanging telephone wires.
A cement mixer and hulking drill stood ready as other workers finished beefing up the road on either side of the Conestoga River bridge at Safe Harbor.
North of the bridge, the generators will have to be wheeled up the sharply ascending River Road and then down long, steep Turkey Hill.
They'll do yet more terrain surfing to reach Washington Boro, where the movers might have noticed cicadas chanting madly last week, and fiery red tomatoes on a roadside table.
They'll duck under towering sycamores and creep past 19th-century stone homes en route to Columbia, where bait seller Anton Woodring was hoping his electricity doesn't go off.
"If I lose power," he said, while air bubbles percolated through aquarium tanks, "we'll lose $300 or $400 of fish."
Shiners are the big concern, added Tammy Fahringer, Woodring's daughter, and the owner of Columbia Bait & Tackle, but there's also "our worms, our leeches, chicken livers... hellgrammites."
Miles to the north, Deb Lancaster took a different view as TMI cooling tower steam boiled over the treetops to her left.
She expects the hubbub stirred up by the generators to boost business at her family's Red Hill Farm stand along 441 in Conoy Township, she said.
Lancaster, who was living on the farm at the time of the 1979 accident, said she's a staunch supporter of TMI.
And she welcomes the generator parade.
"I'm looking forward to this," she said. "They have to do so much to get it here. It's a big do."
Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com.
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