The North Idaho Front Porch (Boise, Coeur d'Alene: riverwalk, railroad, growing)

[Clark Fork Fantast]

How timely--I just read that two of the three megaloads will probably go by rail instead!

Refinery: Two megaload shipments can move via rail - Bonner County Daily Bee: Local News

So now we just have to time it so we don't have to sit at the tracks and wait for 90 minutes while it crawls by....

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

How timely--I just read that two of the three megaloads will probably go by rail instead!

Refinery: Two megaload shipments can move via rail - Bonner County Daily Bee: Local News

So now we just have to time it so we don't have to sit at the tracks and wait for 90 minutes while it crawls by....

Better by far a 90 minute wait than a month long shutdown of a highway, or even longer for a collapsed bridge. When they shipped a megaload over the Lost Trail Pass on 93, the semi could only go 5 mph. Any faster could have made for a slide-off. The transport company had to put a spare semi tractor ahead of the load as the one that did the pulling would eventually begin to overheat and lock up.

The entire plan of hauling those enormous loads over the twisty 2 lanes through the mountains of Idaho was as crazy as sending a herd of elephants to the moon in the first place. Some are over 40 feet high and almost as long as a football field.
One that size, if it was to go off and land in a river, could easily become a dam. I don't think Idahoans would take kindly to the Clearwater being dammed up in the Lolo pass.

[Reziac]

Better scheme: make the megaparts in Montana.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Better scheme: make the megaparts in Montana.

Yes!
I thought from the first it would be cheaper and safer if the Canadian oil companies abandoned the entire transport idea and just build some fabrication facilities close by.

I really don't know enough about what's being transported, though.
Drilling rigs could certainly be cut up into more manageable loads and re-welded in place, I think, but other machinery, like big compressors for natural gas, are probably too closely built and intricate to be cut up.

But, what is assembled can be disassembled and reassembled. Some of these megaloads are coming down the coast on ships. It seems possible that disassembly could be done in Vancouver before they ever came down here, and larger stuff, like storage tanks, could be cut up and welded back together.

I think they didn't look at the costs and difficulties of transport close enough and thought it would be the least expensive. For sure, they originally tried to move it all over Interstates, but that notion was soon blocked. Montana was having none of that and flatly refused the companies to haul any of them. Montana later gave a little, but the loads all carry heavy bonds there.

Butch was a lot easier to deal with. That's why the loads were re-routed into Idaho in the first place. He didn't even require them to acquire bonding for any damages the loads could cause, at least at first. I've heard nothing about any bonding since, though.

This entire project has just gotten crazier and crazier. The first plan was to haul the loads only through Montana, then the Lolo Pass became the second, hauling the loads along the Clearwater for most of it's length, and then the loads were re-routed a 3rd time, bringing them down into south-central Idaho, looping around the mountains, then going back north through Salmon and on to the Bitterroot valley in Montana.

The fact is, there is no good way for them to navigate through our mountains. There are very few passes through them that can accommodate such large loads, and there are too many rivers to cross on old bridges, and too many narrow canyons.

The oil companies are trying to get the equipment into the Alberta oil fields. Alberta is a plains province. They simply didn't plan enough.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by banjomike

YSome of these megaloads are coming down the coast on ships.

So, lacking info to the contrary (anyone??) I'm guessing the big components are being made in China or Indonesia or some such hotbed of major manufacturing. Either some bean counter decided they could save a buck up front (never mind what it costs in the long run), and/or we don't even make these in the U.S. anymore.

In which case, they'll be sorry, given the state of metallurgy (and cheating) on structural components coming out of China.

[Para]

Originally Posted by Reziac

So, lacking info to the contrary (anyone??) I'm guessing the big components are being made in China or Indonesia or some such hotbed of major manufacturing. Either some bean counter decided they could save a buck up front (never mind what it costs in the long run), and/or we don't even make these in the U.S. anymore.

In which case, they'll be sorry, given the state of metallurgy (and cheating) on structural components coming out of China.

The company I work for has outsourced large castings overseas during the past 15 years or so. Part of it is cheaper labor but also due to the EPA and other regulations in the States, it's become cost prohibitive to pour a 100,000 pound steel casting here. So it's not only the cheaper labor that causes the outsourcing. Add the fact that our competition is also using some of these same suppliers in China and there's no way we can't be there also and still have competitive pricing. As a result of many of the large mining customers being located in Brazil, Russia, India, Chile, China, and Australia we are making the major components closer to where they'll be installed which substantially lowers shipping costs for the end customers.

As far a metallurgy goes we do hold them to our specific standards and they comply but many have to be watched pretty closely to keep them on task. We don't have to worry about the metallurgy as much as them stopping work and moving on to other customer parts when our people leave.

As shareholders (pretty much anyone that has a 401K or owns any stocks or mutual funds) in these manufacturing companies insist on x% profit and x% growth per year, the companies will do what they can to achieve those goals, pushing manufacturing overseas is one of the methods. None of us like it very much.

[twosonn]

I am with Trace_Rinaldi on this one! I can't think of a much better place than my back yard near the Palouse! We are in the Mountains northeast of Moscow out of the Troy-Deary area. Wonderful emerald green of the rolling Palouse hills to the West and the foothills of the Continental Divide to the East. If you want canoeing, its here, camping, yes, bird watching, miles of groomed trails for snow mobiles, yes, national parks, yes, reservoirs, yes, rivers for fishing, yes, rivers for white water, yes, sight seeing, yes. How about the oldest tree in the West? It's here. Already about 40 years old when David slew Goliath! Wrap your mind around that one! Probably planted in the flood, lol.

Interested in cultural events? Try out the Jazz Fest, symphonies, ballet, Dancers, Dreamers, and Drummers, Rock concerts, Country Music performances and more.

Can't get any better than this. And a traffic jam is three cars behind a grain truck!

[Publius4]

I found this cool video of aerial images of various parts of Idaho:
[vimeo]93564185[/vimeo]
http://www.vimeo.com/93564185

The film maker is from Boise and did a road trip throughout the state. I recognize the CDA shots and Silverwood but several shot appear to be down south where I'm not familiar.

I bet Banjomike can name every place.

[banjomike]

Thanks for the comment, Publius, but in fact, I recognized very few specific places!
I wish Shoshone Falls had been in full flood, but it's cool when it's flowing like the video. All those rocks are covered by water in full flood, which makes it a totally different waterfall. Hell's Canyon, for sure, the mile high Perrine bridge (with a BASE jumper, of course), and the Palouse. I love the Palouse grain fields!

The vid did cover all corners of the state pretty well; the truth is most of Idaho looks very similar. North, south, east and west all have pine forests, steep canyons, and lots of mountains surrounding valleys. About the only thing that changes is, as a person goes north, the sagebrush begins to become scarcer.

But more than anything, it's the mountains. We always see them, no matter where we live here. They are always out there on the horizon everywhere. And there is always just enough flat land to make a beautiful vista. This is a whacking beautiful state.

[Para]

Originally Posted by Publius4

I found this cool video of aerial images of various parts of Idaho:
[vimeo]93564185[/vimeo]
http://www.vimeo.com/93564185

The film maker is from Boise and did a road trip throughout the state. I recognize the CDA shots and Silverwood but several shot appear to be down south where I'm not familiar.

I bet Banjomike can name every place.

Wish I could give multiple rep points for that post. Thanks Publius.