Megaloads are a real big problem

Megaloads through Kalispell? Really?

We may be off our rockers, but we can plainly envision all kinds of obstacles that would make it highly unlikely for loads 441 feet long, 27 feet wide and 16 feet high, weighing 1.6 million pounds, getting through Kalispell on any possible route.

But a company called Calumet Montana Refining wants to ship a massive refinery machine known as a hydrocracker from Stockton, Calif., to Great Falls, and one of the supposedly possible routes being considered would go through Kalispell.  

“They have proposed going from Coeur d’Alene to Missoula over I-90, but there are concerns with shutting down the interstate,’ said the administrator of the Montana Motor Carrier Division, the entity charged with permitting any route through this state.

That’s some interesting logic — a super-wide interstate with gradual curves and lots of long straight stretches is a concern, but all of the narrow two-lane highways and sharp turns leading to and from Kalispell might be a better route. Maybe on Google Maps, but not in the real world!

Going straight east on U.S. 2 would run the rig into the railroad overpass going into Evergreen. Can’t get to Great Falls that way! And getting through the curvy stretch of road north of Seeley Lake on the Swan Highway seems to be asking for trouble with a rig 441 feet long.

But getting through Kalispell to any highway at all seems a highly unlikely feat. Going south on U.S. 93 would require the megaload drivers to either negotiate pretty tight roundabouts on the bypass route, or make the 90-degree turn from Idaho Street to Main Street and then around the single-lane couplet that circles around the Flathead County Courthouse. Travel would supposedly be restricted to the hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., but so what? These megaloads would still be highly disruptive.

In general, we’re all for economic development, but we’re also for common sense. Great Falls may need these hydrocrackers, but Kalispell and Flathead Valley residents don’t need the mega-headaches they bring with them.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.