There will be an overnight closure on the M53 this weekend so a huge new furnace can be delivered to Stanlow Refinery.
The main module of the UK’s first hydrogen-ready furnace being delivered is 26.5 metres long, 18.5 metres tall, and 14.2 metres wide – twice the length of a road-going oil tanker, almost five times higher than a double decker bus and six times wider than a motorway salt spreader. It was shipped from Thailand to the Port of Liverpool in June, before it was transferred to a barge for the short trip across the River Mersey, through the locks into the Manchester Ship Canal and onto a holding bay near National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port.
The final stage of the load's 6,000 mile journey will be along the M53 and A5117 to Essar Oil UK’s site in Ellesmere Port.
