Back in 1969, Joe Hensley worked as a tree trimmer in northern Maryland.

His company was contracted to clear low-hanging limbs along Route 276 in northcentral Cecil County to make way for the movement of two giant steam generators from Port Deposit to a nuclear power plant under construction at Three Mile Island.

On Sunday afternoon, Hensley sat in a lawn chair alongside Route 276 near his West Nottingham home and watched the first of two giant steam generators roll past on its way from Port Deposit to TMI.

The new generators will replace the ones Hensley helped clear the way for 40 years ago.

INTERACTIVE MAP: Route of giant TMI generators


"I never thought I'd live long enough to see them come by here again," he said.

Hensley was one of thousands of spectators who lined Route 276 in Maryland Sunday to watch the generators and their transports on their first full day of overland travel.

"To 13,000 Cecil County rednecks, this is a good time," one man observed as he set up his chair alongside the road.

The 74-foot-long, 510-ton generators and their 26-axle, 315-ton transports were delivered to Port Deposit by barge last week.

They were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean from France, where manufacturer AREVA Inc. built them for Exelon Nuclear — operators of the TMI plant, which the generators are expected to reach Sept. 30.

Exelon is refurbishing its Unit 1 reactor, including replacing the unit's two steam generators, at a cost of $280 million.

Moving the generators 70 miles by road is a monumental undertaking.

Temporary stream crossings and reinforced bridges were done well ahead of the generators' arrival.

But other tasks, such as laying thick plywood over top of brick crosswalks the heavy vehicles might possibly crush, and moving traffic signals and raising utility wires to provide clearance for the 25-foot-tall generators, are done just a few hours before the generators roll past.

And everything is then put back in place after the generators have moved on.

Sunday, the team of some 100 workers charged with making the move happen got its first sampling of life on the road with the generators.

"We planned and planned, but we couldn't really get a sense of how things would go until today," AREVA spokeswoman Denise Woernle said Sunday. "From what I've been told, it's going pretty well."

There were some glitches along the way, such as a ruptured hydraulic line on one of the transports in the morning.

But the crew traveling with the transports is trained to fix mechanical problems on the road to keep the generators moving.

"They'll stop if they have to and take care of things," Woernle said. "That's what they're here for."

If Sunday gave the transport team an idea of what it's like to move the generators, then it also gave motorists a taste of what it's like to drive in the vicinity of the convoy.

Route 276 was closed for about a mile in front of and behind each generator, which traveled about a mile apart.

Vehicles were allowed to cross over Route 276 at some intersections, as long as the generator itself wasn't blocking them. Other intersections were closed several hours ahead of the generators.

The transports travel at a top speed of 3 mph, but they often moved far slower and they frequently stopped on Sunday.

The convoy is expected to cross the Maryland border and enter Chester County today.

On Tuesday, the generators are scheduled to roll across the Route 272 bridge over Octoraro Creek and enter Lancaster County.

Although they haven't yet entered the county, preparations for the generators already have caused problems here, according to Pequea Township Supervisor Virginia Brady.

A temporary stream crossing has been built alongside Route 272 at Pequea Creek on the Pequea-Providence township border because the bridge over the creek can't support the weight of the generators.

The crossing is made of stone, which was compacted around and on top of culvert pipes, which were set in the creek bed to allow the stream to flow.

But Brady said those pipes couldn't handle the increased flow of water Friday night caused by heavy rains.

"That bridge they built acted like a dam and it backed up the creek all the way up to Shiprock Road," Brady said. "I got a lot of calls from a lot of residents."

Brady said she can't recall the waters of the Pequea Creek on the east side of Route 272 being as high as they were Friday night since Tropical Storm Agnes hit in 1972.

The high water flooded crop fields, pastures and some basements, Brady said.

Township officials notified AREVA of the situation, and Brady said crews worked late into the night to remove some of the stone used to create the bridge, allowing more water to flow past.

"I guess they got it fixed, because the creek went down," she said.

The generators are expected to cross Pequea Creek around Sept. 17.