53 trucks hauling oversized loads to move through Armstrong, Westmoreland and Indiana counties

Fifty-three trucks hauling oversized loads, known as "super loads," will travel on highways in Armstrong, Westmoreland and Indiana counties over the next four months. 

Each truck — 205 feet long, 17 feet wide, nearly 17 feet high and weighing more than 376 tons — will carry large industrial pieces from the docks in Freeport to the new Homer City natural-gas-powered data center and generating station being built in Indiana.

Willie Sanford, a large project manager with Edwards Moving and Rigging, the company doing the hauling, said in a meeting on Wednesday in Delmont that there are a lot of moving parts with this project and people need to be aware that there will be times when bridges will be closed for the trucks to pass over safely.

"One of them is on U.S. 22 over [Union Pacific] Railroad and Highway 217, and the other bridge is on Campbells Mill Road over Blacklick Creek," Sanford said. "At 7 p.m., we will do a complete road closure of U.S. 22, and we are anticipating U.S. 22 to be closed down three to four hours while we do that."

Other facts to know in all this:

• Transports will start at 8 a.m.
• Speed in urban areas can be as low as 3 miles per hour.
• Speed on the highway can be as much as 18 mph.
• Crews will stop to lift wires and poles as needed.

If you see you are behind an oversized load, try to find an alternate route. Most importantly, police, fire and EMS will be able to get around and won't be impacted. 

Sanford said their slow-moving convoys will be about 150 yards long and drivers should be on the lookout for Pennsylvania State Police troopers, who will be conducting the rolling road closures.

"All of our intersections, we will close down," Sanford said. "We will not stop at the red lights and things like that. Our state troopers that are working with us, they will come up to an intersection, they will close it down, we travel through it. Our goal is to not stop."

The first load is set to travel south on Route 66 and east on Route 22 on Sept. 14. Edwards Moving and Rigging said it will provide updates on its social media pages and will push updates to leaders in the areas they will be traveling through.