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Posted by David Sherman on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 at 11:33:23 :
In Reply to: Re: O.T. Heavy Haul posted by Jerry in Idaho on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 at 10:41:13 :
I wasn't here 20 years ago, but since I've been here there have been 4 giant loads come through town. Apparently one little section of the new (1980-ish) I-90 viaduct isn't rated for this kind of load, so IDOT makes them detour through town. I don't know what the problem is with that section -- whether it wasn't designed right or it was damaged. They always have a tough time on my corner. The last thing that came through was the expansion joint for the new Tacoma Narrows bridge. They had a better rig for hauling it because they could turn every axle independently in any direction. The funny thing with it was even though it was for a Washington bridge, the WSDOT at the Stateline scale house wouldn't let it through. I'm pretty sure this winch was heavier, and the hauler not so good, so I really would like to see what the guy in the scale shack did with it. I wouldn't be surprised if it's parked at Stateline this morning. Apparently Washington state has more complicated rules for how weight must be distributed on a heavy load than any state east of here does.
I-90 used to have the last stoplight on I-90. North Bend, Washington had the second to the last. They finally built viaduct about 2 miles long over top of the railroad tracks to bypass Wallace. The valley's too narrow to put it anywhere else. Originally they were going to just flatten literally half of the town, but Harry Magnuson got the city listed on the Historic Register to stop them. He made a large fortune in mining stocks and was one of the two seriously rich men of Idaho. J.R. Simplot was the other. Harry lived in a modest house right here in town. He liked Wallace and didn't want to see it bulldozed, especially since they'd just run I-90 through the middle of Kellogg. He also had several sons who were lawyers, and had bailed out the Gonzaga University law school when it was in trouble, so he had access to good legal advice, and of course he had the ear of the the state's congressional delegation and other important people. They were still using the railroad then, so they had to elevate the whole freeway up above it. Harry just died a couple weeks ago.