The M53 will be closed for 15-hours today to allow for "one of the largest objects ever" to be moved.
The southbound carriageway in Ellesmere Port will be closed between junction 5 at Hooton and junction 10 for Cheshire Oaks from 7pm on Saturday, August 13 until 10am the following day, to allow for the delivery of a huge new furnace to Essar's Stanlow refinery. The northbound carriageway will also close after 7pm between junction 10 and junction 8.
The new furnace is one of the largest objects ever to be moved on UK roads, and is the main module of the UK’s first hydrogen-ready furnace. It is expected to fill the whole of the motorway and will take 15-hours to complete.
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The load is 26.5 metres long, 18.5 metres tall, and 14.2 metres wide, twice the length of a road-going oil tanker and almost five times the height of a double-decker bus. A diversion will be in place using the A550 and A494 trunks between junction 5 and junction 11 at Stoak Interchange where the M53 meets the M56.
As part of the work to accommodate the abnormal load, National Highways confirmed they will need to remove and restore a number of lighting columns and matrix signs from the central reservation, boundary fencing and safety barrier from the verge, some safety barrier from the central reservation and a number of signs.
Gordon Beattie, abnormal loads manager for the North West said: "There are abnormal loads and there are abnormal loads, and this one will completely fill the motorway. The module will be mounted on two wheeled platforms, one on each carriageway, and will look a bit like the bridge of a container ship gliding down the motorway.
"This has been a huge logistical challenge for everyone involved but we’ll be closing the motorway at a time when traffic is at its lightest and a very good diversion will be in place."
After arriving by ship from Thailand to the Port of Liverpool in June 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 last leg of its 6,000 mile, and mostly watery, journey will be along the M53 motorway and A5117 local road.
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