WARREN COUNTY — A superload accompanied by a police escort closed several roads Friday. The Duke Energy transformer, which weighs more than a half-million pounds, took all day to be moved from Warren County to Butler County.
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As previously reported on News Center 7 at 5:30, the massive transformer weighs in at more than 600,000 pounds. It was taken by train and dropped off in Monroe near Traders World. Friday morning, it set off to be moved to Butler County.
RELATED>> UPDATE: Transportation of nearly 630,000-pound ‘superload’ delayed
“We’re moving it to, ultimately, TopCoder substation on top of the rail,” Trey Stetler with Edwards Rigging, who was leading the crew, said.
The equipment only had to cross one county line; from Union Road in Warren County to Todhunter Road in Butler County. Apple Maps says this journey should take 13 minutes for the average driver, but crews needed more than five hours before the equipment could even move.
Roads that were scheduled to be closed from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. were still closed at 3 p.m., all because they had to build a temporary bridge.
“The bridge working with Warren County was not cut. It did not pass the test to carry the amount of weight on our trailer,” Stetler said.
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This is called bridge jumping, and Stetler says it doesn’t happen often.
“It takes about four loads of equipment truck to train,” Stetler said. “It’s about two and a half to three hours of setup time.”
Those hours are just for the prep work. Once the bridge is set, the equipment is driven by two trucks, one at the front and one at the back, at a walking pace.
“We have an escort vehicle with a height full on the front seats, a stick that’s out of the hood of the vehicle,” Stetler said.
The poles are set at the same heights of the equipment. If the pole hits a power line, crews use bucket trucks to lift the lines over the transformer.
The movement of the superload was originally scheduled for earlier, but multiple factors led to the project’s delay. According to crews on the scene, winter weather including snow and ice were the cause of the delays.
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