Avon and Somerset Police are giving people warning of another abnormal load which will be travelling through the Bath area today and tomorrow.
It’s the third and final transformer from Didcot power station, being transported to Avonmouth Docks by Allelys Heavy Haulage of Studley.
The load will take up two lanes on motorways and both lanes of single carriageway stretches of road.
The loads are almost 100m long and 5m wide, weigh around 640 tonnes and will travel at an average four mph – walking pace – and even more slowly on uphill stretches.
Police cannot guarantee the timings outlined below, but the expected schedule is:
- Saturday 23rd November – leave Membury at approximately 10am, leaving the M4 at Tormarton for the A46 and arriving at the Tog Hill parking area on the A420 at about 5pm for an overnight rest stop.
- Sunday 24th November – leave the Tog Hill parking area between 8 and 9am, reaching Avonmouth by about 6pm.
As the load is too heavy for the M4 near junction 19, it will use A roads on part of its journey through the Avon and Somerset policing area.
Once the load leaves the M4 at junction 18, Tormarton, it will travel along the A46 to the A420, parking up for the driver’s rest period at Tog Hill at about 5pm.
On Sunday it will undergo a series of safety checks before leaving by 9am. It will be escorted along the A420 and is expected to arrive at Wick at about 11am. When it reaches the village there will be a delay as steel plates are laid on the road where it passes over two culverts.
The route then takes it to the A4174. When it reaches the Bromley Heath roundabout the road will be closed from there to the M32 junction so that the load can travel on the wrong side of the dual carriageway to avoid a weak bridge.
At the junction with Bristol Road, the load will return to the correct carriageway and continue onto the M32, rejoining the M4 before taking the M5 to Avonmouth.
The load was meant to come through the area last week but was postponed due to a problem loading the transformers.
