---
title: "A 294-Ton ‘Superload’ Is Crossing Pennsylvania Right Now"
description: "A 294-ton 'superload' is crossing Pennsylvania right now, and you're going to want to steer clear of this slow-moving beast."
date: "2022-01-15"
modified: "2022-01-18"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin V. Shaw"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kristin-shaw"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/43900/a-294-ton-superload-is-crossing-pennsylvania-right-now"
categories:
  - "News"
  - "Trucks"
---

# A 294-Ton ‘Superload’ Is Crossing Pennsylvania Right Now

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2022/01/Superload-HERO.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

True story: when I was in college, I took a summer job through a temp agency driving the [“Wide Load Ahead”](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/6953/watch-the-way-boeing-transports-oversized-loads>) pickup truck for a [mobile home frame](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/36567/chevy-silverado-driver-busted-towing-70-foot-mobile-home-on-rural-missouri-highway>) manufacturer. I’d help the semi driver chain up the cumbersome frames and lead the way as we rolled through the county roads of northern Indiana on the way to the delivery site. It was a great job, partly because we’d stop for cinnamon rolls or coffee or lunch after each load. Once, the driver let me drive the unloaded semi-trailer across the parking lot and it felt massive.

Compared to the [213-foot-long, 294-ton “superload” tractor-trailer](<https://www.penndot.gov/regionaloffices/district-4/pages/details.aspx?newsid=873>) making its way across Pennsylvania right now, that truck I drove briefly is like a Matchbox car. Traveling at snail’s-pace speeds of 30 miles per hour and lower, the [superload truck](<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/us/superload-truck.html>) is transporting a gigantic steel tank bound for disassembling and recycling on the other side of the state.

For scale, an adult blue whale weighs about 150 tons and can span between 70 and 110 feet long. So basically, the driver is towing the equivalent of two blue whales or seventy-three [Hummer H1s](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/25730/mil-spec-hummer-h1-review-the-glory-of-a-bespoke-250000-hummer-with-1000-pound-feet-of-torque>).

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYpJ5DJF8Rm

The cargo itself is a chunk of the [D1G Prototype reactor](<https://dbpedia.org/page/D1G_reactor>) in West Milton, New York, where the U.S. Navy used the [Kenneth A. Kesselring site](<https://navalnuclearlab.energy.gov/kenneth-kesselring-site/>) for nuclear propulsion training until the mid '90s. [Kicking off its journey on January 12](<https://www.facebook.com/PennsylvaniaDepartmentofTransportation/posts/293846949435411>), the massive truck and its trailer will travel a total of about 400 miles in 10 days and will mostly stick to Interstate 80, which stretches between San Francisco, California and Teaneck, New Jersey. It's a fairly hilly and mountainous route on the East side of Pennsylvania and whoever is driving this truck has to be a pro.

[A local news site in Lehigh Valley posted a warning](<https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/traffic/2022/01/a-slow-moving-superload-is-making-a-400-mile-trip-across-pa-avoid-it-at-all-costs.html>), and I couldn’t agree more: “A slow-moving ‘superload’ is making a 400-mile trip across Pa. Avoid it at all costs.” Here in Texas, it’s not uncommon to see one wind turbine blade strapped to a trailer on its way to assembly on someone’s property, and it’s much bigger than you might imagine. Thinking about getting behind a [two-lane-wide superload](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/33935/how-a-semi-truck-hauls-a-235-foot-335000-pound-super-load-down-public-roads>) in the middle of the night in the winter season gives me the cold chills.

Still, it would be interesting to see.

*Got a tip? Comment below or send a note to kristin.shaw@thedrive.com.*

## Author
Kristin Shaw is the former Weekend Editor for The Drive and a current freelancer in both the automotive and aviation worlds. She’s a big fan of anything car-related and calls on her technology background on the corporate side to explain engineering and high-tech concepts. Now living in her sixth state (New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, and now Texas), she is thrilled that working from home is now mainstream.

### Author social links  
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[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/KristinVShaw>)