Giant hydrogen furnace makes its way down M53 in Cheshire.
A section of the M53 was closed overnight as police escorted a huge hydrogen furnace en route to Stanlow as part of a 6,000 mile journey from Thailand. The hydrogen-ready furnace was being delivered to the Essar Oil UK site at Stanlow Refinery.
The southbound carriageway of the M53 between junction 5 at Hooton and junction 10 for Cheshire Oaks was closed from 7pm until 10am this morning. This unusual and striking delivery was the main module of the UK’s first hydrogen-ready furnace.
The largest single ‘module’ for the new furnace measures a staggering 26.5 metres long, 18.5 metres tall, and 14.2 metres wide – twice the length of a road-going oil tanker, nearly five times higher than a double decker bus and six times wider than one of National Highways’ famous orange salt spreaders.
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As the huge furnace slowly made its way down the M53, a number of people took pictures. The M53 was part of the final leg of its 6,000 mile journey all the way from Thailand. It arrived in the Port of Liverpool by ship from Thailand before being transferred to a barge for the short trip across the River Mersey.
It then travelled through the locks into the Manchester Ship Canal and onto a holding bay near National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port. And the last leg of its mostly watery journey took it along the strictly terra firma of the M53 motorway and A5117.
Photos taken of the humungous cargo, some with emergency services staff looking like Liliputians alongside it, reveal the sheer scale of it, and explain just why the M53 had to be closed to give it enough room.
And this was such a monumental operation that National Highways has had 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.
Trees have also had to be trimmed in places along the A5117 to ensure there is enough room for the mega wide load, according to reports on social media.
So how exactly, did this mammoth furnace get to Stanlow?
Yesterday (August 13) it was 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 module was then slowly and carefully moved at walking pace some three miles en route to Essar Oil UK’s Stanlow site, exiting the M53 at junction 10 and travelling along the A5117 local road.
Diversions were put in place, using the A550 and A494 trunks which operated between junction 5 and junction 11 at Stoak Interchange where the M53 meets the M56.
Gordon Beattie, National Highways’ abnormal loads manager for the North West told Cheshire Live, speaking ahead of the delivery with a difference:
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.”
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Giant hydrogen furnace makes its way down M53 in Cheshire, August 15, 2022
