I had an interesting drive in to work today. I had five wide loads go by me. Living out in the country that’s a lot of wide loads. I have always found it interesting too how the they route the wide loads through our winding, mountain pass road.
Actually, they don’t really have much choice. From our crossroads to the Interstate is about 25 miles. If you head East on the Interstate, the next major road exit is about 20 miles. However, in between those exits, is a railroad overpass that is a low overpass. A lot of the wide loads cannot make it under that railroad overpass. The State has had it on there “To Do” list since we have lived in Arizona to raise the height of the overpass, but it never seems to happen.
Thus, all the high profile loads, which includes most wide loads, our routed off of the Interstate and through our little rural area and through windy, s-curve pass. You don’t really notice these wide loads unless you happen to be on the road driving. Then, you hope that the wide loads are going in the opposite direction of you.
Today, all five wide loads were going against me. This minimizes the impact. If they are being escorted by the State Police, they make you pull off the side of the road until the wide load passes. So you may lose a couple minutes per load. However, if you are going in the same direction as the wide load, you may go many miles at 20 or 30 miles an hour before you are given an opportunity to get around the wide loads.
Before today, I am not sure I have encountered more than one wide load per trip between the Interstate and the crossroads. Luckily, I was going in the right direction today. There were many cars being held up heading to Sonoita. Being a rural area, “many cars” is probably being very subjective here. I suspect folks living in the big city would just consider it a minor annoyance compared to the day-to-day rush hour traffic they endure.
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