Nearly 160-foot-long wind turbine blade gets stuck between 2 homes in Pittsburgh area
An oversized trailer hauling the blade of a wind turbine got stuck Tuesday in Bradenville, Westmoreland County, along its 700-mile route to Iowa.
Derry Township Supervisor Don Kepple told KDKA-TV that the driver said he was on his way from Ebensburg to Iowa on a route approved by PennDOT.
"The driver said they get their permit through PennDOT, and they have to follow the route that was given to them. They're not allowed to get off that route, and somebody must not have checked into the best route to go," Kepple said.
The driver was traveling along Route 982 near High Street when the wind turbine wedged between two houses.
"I come up, and there's the beam, there's that wind turbine sitting on that corner to that corner, inches from going into each house," said Mark Piantine, Derry Township's fire chief.
Kepple said from the front of the truck to the rear point of the propeller was 159 feet, 4 inches long, more than half the length of a football field.
"The biggest problem is, if he didn't go out through here, once you got down at the underpass, he was never getting through there. He'd never made the turn because the tail was so long," Piantine said.
Piantine called it a "traffic nightmare" as crews worked to reroute traffic for at least two hours.
"We had the mass transit buses trying to get through and tractor-trailers," Piantine said.
Kepple said the driver had to back up nearly a mile to the Derry Township Municipal Building to get out of the way. Around the initial 90-degree turn by High Street, Kepple said the blade punctured through Zeb's Towing.
The owner there said he's never experienced anything like it in the 32 years he's owned the building. Luckily, the damage was minimal.
"They had to take the street sign out to get the truck around the corner to back them up," Piantine said.
Once the driver made it to the municipal building, Kepple said the driver faced yet another problem while waiting to get a new permit and be rerouted.
"While he was here at the building, the rear axle on the trailer steered by a Honda Motor, which is remote controlled by somebody standing and holding it, and he had trouble with his motor while he was in the building," Kepple said. "He was here for a few hours 'till he got it running. And then later in the early evening, he was on Route 22 at the red light by Livermore Road, and apparently the Honda Motor failed and he couldn't make the turn."
Many have since questioned why the route through Bradenville was approved.
"Why they didn't just keep them on 22 to 66, which ended up being the route that he ended up going, nobody seems to know," Kepple said.
KDKA-TV reached out to PennDOT to learn more about the route the truck was told to take through Bradenville. We have not heard back yet as of Wednesday evening.
