Generator route
The three-day move of a 460-ton electrical generator from the Three Mile Island nuclear plant through western Lancaster County has been delayed again.
The slow transport, which will result in traffic delays along Route 441 and across the Route 30 bridge, was scheduled to begin Friday.
The move already had been delayed once because of high water under access bridges at TMI.
Now, the state Department of Transportation has delayed the transport.
PennDOT has informed the movers that they need to further strengthen the Route 30 bridge before the move will be permitted, according to Greg Penny, PennDOT spokesman.
Plates and supports may have to be added, he said.
The move now is scheduled to begin Friday, April 9.
The generator has been mothballed since the 1979 accident at TMI and will be used in a nuclear plant in North Carolina.
When the move does begin, it will take three days to move the piece of equipment from the plant, down Route 441 and across the Route 30 bridge at Columbia.
The move is not as large or involved as the transport of two mammoth steam generators across Lancaster County to TMI last fall. But drivers can expect traffic delays on sections of Route 441 as the convoy inches along at no more than 15 mph.
The road will be closed for up to three hours where the transporter goes up and over specially constructed "overbridges" where Route 441 crosses Conewago Creek, Conoy Creek and Chiques Creek.
Up to one-hour delays may be encountered at smaller bridge crossings over Stony Run, Snitz Creek and a small unnamed tributary.
"We will have detour signs and message boards up. People won't get trapped," said Roger Simpson, project manager for Biggie Crane and Rigging Co., the California-based outfit conducting the move.
He said for most of the route, where there are not stream crossings, traffic disruption will only be in the minutes.
Unlike the move last fall, no power lines will have to be taken down so there should be no power disruptions along Route 441, according to Simpson.
The 14-foot-high generator will be transported on a 22-axle, 21-foot-wide trailer pulled by a huge tractor built mostly to haul heavy loads to the surface in mining operations.
The generator, which turns steam into electricity, only operated three months at TMI's Unit 2 reactor complex when the infamous accident occurred.
It was housed in the turbine building and was not contaminated with radiation.
FirstEnergy, which now owns Unit 2, sold the unit to Siemens Power Generation. It will be used to boost power capacity at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant near Raleigh, N.C.
Traffic delays will begin at 8 a.m. April 9 as crews begin constructing the temporary overbridge that will carry the generator over the existing bridge across Conewago Creek. The transporter carrying the generator will leave the island at about 9 a.m.
The generator will proceed south on Route 441, reaching an overnight parking spot near the Armstrong ceiling plant north of Marietta at about 6 p.m.
There will be no move on Saturday, April 10, until 6:30 p.m. when the overbridge is constructed over Chiques Creek. The transport should move over the stream about 10 p.m.
After moving down the Chickies Rock hill, the transport will move across the Route 30 bridge around 3 a.m. Sunday.
Once into York County, the generator will travel near the Susquehanna River to Havre de Grace, Md.
The unit then will be driven onto a barge and floated down the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean to Portsmouth, Va. There, it will be loaded onto a oversized railroad car and taken by train to the nuclear plant. It will be refurbished at the plant and put into service next fall.