Megaloads? Forget Megaloads? Think MegaProjects Locally

10 years of oil project construction about 120 miles south of Canadian border

Montana site

President Obama not expected to visit; expected to provide too many high-paying jobs

Remember all those stories about "Big Oil" having difficulty getting permission to truck megaloads destined for the Canadian oil sands projects over Montana and Idaho highways?

It looks like someone has taken the bull by the horns.

The project is outside Bynum, near Choteau, Montana, about 70 miles south of Browning, Montana, and about 120 miles south of the Canadian border.

Data points:

• 160 acres just south of Bynum
• may soon be a bustling assembly plant for oil equipment bound for Canada
• the field on the east side of U.S. Highway 89 belongs to Lauren Engineering and Construction
• Lauren Eng is an Abilene, Texas, company; operates throughout the United States, Canada and India
• activity is expected to begin in late April.
• the plant will take modular equipment from its base in Abilene and assemble it for delivery to oil fields in Alberta -- press release
• the pipe rack modules are truck-pulled frameworks that carry large sections of specialized pipes for oil-sands refinery tank farms -- press release
• they weigh between 40,000 and 150,000 pounds and average 80 feet long -- press release

From the linked article:

"The scale just boggles my mind," Choteau City Council president Blair Patton said. "We're hearing it could be five or 10 years of project construction. It sounds like a shot in the arm with no downside."