Million-pound, 400-foot load in the Flathead

A megaload of refinery equipment headed for Great Falls arrived in the Smith Valley area on Thursday morning, Aug. 21. It parked at the weigh station west of Kalispell.

The megaload is 21 feet wide, nearly 17 feet tall, has a maximum weight of more than 1 million pounds and is a little more than 400 feet long.

The megaload is scheduled to make a roundabout trip through the Flathead Valley on Thursday night and early Friday morning.

It will travel into Kalispell and turn north on Meridian Road, then head up U.S. 93 to the junction of Highway 40, then head east on Highway 40 through Columbia Falls, then head south on Highway 206, head east on Highway 35 and then head south on Highway 83.

It’s scheduled to stop Friday morning at milepost 77 near Swan Lake before heading down the Seeley-Swan Valley and then east on Highway 200 to Great Falls, its final destination.

The megaload will be moved at night between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. to avoid congestion. Delays as long as 15 minutes can be expected for drivers who encounter the megaload.

The equipment being transported is the first of three slated pieces of a hydrocracker, which will be used to process heavy oil from Canadian tar sands at the Calumet Refinery in Great Falls. The megaload is being moved by Bigge Crane & Rigging Co., which picked up the load at the Port of Lewiston in Idaho last week.