Imperial Oil, the Canadian unit of ExxonMobil, hopes to move 207 separate “modules” from a manufacturer in South Korea to its $7.1 billion Kearl Lake oil sands project near Fort McMurray in Alberta. ConocoPhillips wants to transport two gigantic coke drums, manufactured in Asia and delivered to Lewiston in May, down much of the same route to a refinery in Billings, Mont.

The proposed route could shave thousands of miles of transportation costs for such shipments, which might otherwise be forced to travel through the Panama Canal to overland routes accessed through Houston or New Orleans. Interstates and other wide highways are typically not an option, in part because overpasses are too low.

Transportation officials in Idaho and Montana say that their roads  with some modifications made and paid for by the companies, including additional pullouts along the route and raised or buried power lines  could handle the shipments. The plan calls for the loads to move only at night and in start-and-stop fashion, going down the road for a short time, then pulling over to let other traffic pass. For Imperial Oil’s trips, it would take the trucks nine nights to cover the 510-mile route through Idaho and Montana.

“We have done our level best to ensure, if given approval, that we can move these modules safely,” said Pius Rolheiser, an Imperial spokesman.

Image Credit... The New York Times

Eighteen-wheelers already traverse U.S. 12 here, which serves as a gateway to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area, one of the largest tracts of virgin wildland in the contiguous United States. The road is also part of two national trails tracing routes followed by the Nez Perce tribe and Lewis and Clark.

But Mr. Laughy, whose home sits on a ridge above U.S. 12, about 75 miles east of Lewiston, says the oil equipment is different. He points to thin margins of error along U.S. 12, where the road slices a tight path between rising rock walls on one side and a quick drop-off to the river on the other. He also fears that sooner or later, an emergency vehicle rushing toward a fire or delivering someone to a hospital will be slowed by the meandering shipments, potentially costing lives.