Part of the M53 will shut next week to make way for a "mammoth" load that will "completely fill" the motorway.
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 close after 7pm between junction 10 and junction 8, with the length of the closure subject to an appropriate reduction in traffic levels from Cheshire Oaks.
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. The load is 26.5 metres long, 18.5 metres tall, and 14.2 metres wide , equating to twice the length of a road-going oil tanker and almost five times the height of a double-decker bus.
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The furnace made the 6,000 mile trip 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 the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port.
On Saturday, August 13 it will be moved away from the canal a few hundred yards onto the neighbouring M53 via the southbound entry slip road at junction 8. Straddling both the northbound and southbound carriageways, the furnace will then be slowly and carefully moved at walking pace some three miles onto Essar Oil UK’s Stanlow site, exiting the M53 at junction 10 and travelling along the A5117 local road.
Gordon Beattie, National Highways’ 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.”
Stewart Prentice, Head of Projects, at Essar added: “We would like to thank National Highways for their support in this mammoth task, especially in facilitating closure of the M53 as our new furnace travels on its final leg to Stanlow.
"The new furnace is one of the largest objects ever to be moved on UK roads and key to Essar’s strategy of transitioning to being a low carbon energy provider at the forefront of decarbonisation in the North West.”
A diversion using the A550 and A494 trunks will operate 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 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.
The new furnace is part of Government-backed plans to include hydrogen in the race to reduce the country’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
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