Idaho Agency Schedules Hearing on Oversize Transport Permits

This story appears in the Dec. 13 print edition of Transport Topics.

The Idaho Transportation Department scheduled hearings late last week on whether to issue overweight, oversize transport permits for four massive loads of refinery equipment after a state administrative law judge nullified permits the state had issued to ConocoPhillips Co. in October.

In his Nov. 24 decision, the administrative law judge, Boise attorney Merlyn Clark, left the next step to ITD Director Brian Ness, who set hearings for Dec. 8 and 9 on the planned shipment on winding U.S. Highway 12, much of which is two lanes.

The decision was a victory for foes of these and planned future shipments, but a setback for Conoco-Phillips, which has been waiting months to get huge coke drums from the Port of Lewiston on the Snake River in Idaho, across that state to the company’s refinery near Billings, Mont.

“We are disappointed,” company spokesman Bill Stephens said after the judge’s decision. The Associated Press also quoted Stephens as saying, “We do not believe the recommendation adequately accounts for the careful planning by ConocoPhillips.”

Manufactured in Japan, the drums were offloaded at Longview, Wash., and went by barge up the Columbia and Snake rivers to Lewiston, where they are sitting on rigs built especially for the trip.

“What they’re on is what we call a dolly-beam system,” said Mark Hefty, project development manager for the firm that will haul the equipment, Emmert International of Clackamas, Ore., which specializes in large loads.

The flatbed rigs are “engineered and fabricated to transport that specific item. It’s like having a big Lego set, for lack of a better term,” Hefty told Transport Topics.

This is the first time Emmert has been caught up in a dispute over hauling a load, Hefty said, but it’s not the biggest load the firm has handled.

“In Salt Lake City last summer, we transported a 5 million-pound brick building across the street and essentially used the same equipment that we are for this project,” Hefty said.

“We’ve been doing this for 45 years,” he added. “I think a lot of folks don’t understand the amount of planning and preparation that goes into something like that.”

The AP reported that Conoco-Phillips officials said delays have already cost the corporation $2.5 million, and the total could reach $40 million if the drums do not arrive in Billings by spring. The wire service said the officials warned that an unplanned work stoppage was possible at a key gasoline producer for Idaho, Montana and other Rocky Mountain states.

Opponents of the shipments said they looked forward to the hearings and getting involved in the highway agency’s decision-making process on oversize shipment permits.

“This is a good step forward,” said Laird Lucas, the Boise attorney representing the people who oppose the shipments.

“It allows the people who live along the highway, who own businesses along Highway 12, to have their voices heard. It’s been a behind-closed-doors deal so far. I’m glad we’ll have a chance now to participate.”

During a Nov. 19 hearing before the judge, AP reported, Lucas said ITD had failed to adequately consider the public’s safety and convenience when it approved the company’s travel plans.

Lucas also said his clients face personal health and economic risks if the loads are allowed to go forward and deserve the chance to get involved in the process.

Clark agreed, finding that Linwood Laughy and his wife, Karen “Borg” Hendrickson, and businessman Peter Grubb, have a direct and substantial interest in the case. Laughy and Hendrickson live along the highway, while Grubb owns a lodge and outfitting business along the scenic byway, AP said.

While this case focuses on the ConocoPhillips shipments, opponents said ITD’s permit decision would set a precedent for hundreds of oversized loads being considered for U.S. 12, which traces the trail once trekked by Lewis and Clark and runs near the federally protected Lochsa and Clearwater rivers.

The Lewiston Tribune reported that no more megaloads are expected to reach the port before barge traffic between Lewiston and Portland, Ore., closes on Dec. 10 for scheduled work on locks along the river.

The Tribune said, however, there already are 38 shipments at Lewiston waiting to be hauled along U.S. 12 — 34 belonging to ExxonMobil Corp. and four to ConocoPhillips.

ExxonMobil is seeking oversize permits from ITD in order to haul loads across Idaho into Montana and north to the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada.

According to AP, each of the Exxon loads would weigh 300 tons and be 227 feet long, 27 feet high and 29 feet wide, taking up both lanes of the highway.

Like the ConocoPhillips trucks, ExxonMobil’s would run only at night and be required to stop every 15 minutes along pullouts to allow traffic to pass.

ConocoPhillips’ troubles have frustrated Idaho business groups such as loggers, miners and farmers, who view the setbacks as a threat to their own ability to ship oversized loads on state highways.

“We should all be concerned about the extra steps being required of these particular loads,” said Alex LaBeau, president of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, the leading business group in the state. “These permits are crucial to industries that make up the backbone of the state.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.