And I’ve seen some insane things.

Seeing the video’s yesterday of the big wind generator blades coming through Marble Town, after coming up Texas 71 out of Austin, then turning on on FM 2147 and going through Horseshoe Bay and turning north on US 281. The question was raised of why didn’t they just turn at the 281/71 intersection? That would the seem the most logical, in anyone’s estimation. Nice loop around out there get from one highway to the other.

But it has to do with permitting. All highway construction is marked on a master map at TxDot so no permit load will get sent through an area under construction. Hence the reason 8 big trucks were seen making that tight turn out on River Hill on just that one day.

We used to haul a lot of oversized loads a few years ago, when we were in that business. We contracted to haul 3 large silo type bins from the west side of Georgetown on Texas 29. We sent all three trucks so they could along run together to ease the cost of escorts and we always thought that it looked impressive to see those big black rigs coming down the road one behind the other. We thought that, because it was impressive.

The bins were going out to the rock crusher at the railroad tracks between Burnet and Marble Falls.

There wasn’t road construction that effected the permit in this case, but instead a Burnet City Ordinance. That ordinance was setup so oversized trucks couldn’t turn left at the red light and head south on US 281. That caused too much disruption to the traffic flows.

It didn’t matter to us, because we priced the moves according to where the trip sent us.

So when we got to Burnet, we continued on straight to Fuzzy’s Corner. We turned left and went through the middle of Kingsland to Marble Falls. For those that live in the area you know that the FM 1431 and US 281 intersection is not exactly 90°, that there is a reverse curve that makes it difficult for anyone to turn there, much less an oversized load.

The 6 mile trip from Burnet to the destination ended up being close to 40 miles, exposing hundreds more of the traveling public to be inconvenienced.