Over the weekend, a large piece of equipment will be transported to Los Alamos National Laboratory, potentially causing brief traffic delays. A 360-foot-long road train carrying a 63-foot-long, nearly 227-ton rotor will travel through Santa Fe from Old Las Vegas Highway. From there the equipment will travel to White Rock, heading north on U.S. 285 and west on N.M. 502. On Sunday, Oct. 18, the equipment is scheduled to travel up Pajarito Road and arrive at the Laboratory in the afternoon.
The rotor is a specialized generator component that spins inside a generator housing to create electrical pulses that produce magnetic fields for use in advanced scientific experiments. The new rotor was manufactured in Switzerland, transported by barge to Antwerp, Belgium, and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to Houston, Texas. From there, it traveled by specialized truck to New Mexico.
The rotor will follow the route below.
Because of the complex logistics involved in transporting the rotor, the schedule could change. Updates will be provided if it does.
