SnapGlow.TV: Modern Gems Galore! Two behemoth cylinders destined to generate steam at Three Mile Island produced something vastly different yesterday: groupies.
Hundreds of onlookers craned their necks and snapped photos as a caravan more than a mile long inched into southern Chester County from Maryland on Route 1 at a dizzying top speed of 3 miles per hour.
One of the top viewing hubs was the Wawa at Routes 272 and 1, where some visitors had to be shooed away by police after they tried to set up lawn chairs in the parking lot.
"This place was packed," said Dana Casella, 22, of Nottingham. "It reminded me of Nottingham Park on the Fourth of July."
Fortunately, the prospect of fireworks was slim since this hefty cargo contains no radioactive or explosive materials, according to AREVA NP Inc., a nuclear-service company that designed and built the generators in Chalon-sur-Saone, France.
The slow pace of the procession gave people lots of time to observe the special treatment it received, dictated primarily by its size rather than its French pedigree. Each of the two transport vehicles used 208 tires to distribute the weight of the 510-ton generators, said Denise Woernle, an AREVA spokeswoman.
Flanked by state police vehicles - on overtime duty courtesy of AREVA - the 24-foot-high, 18-foot-wide generators were preceded and followed by utility crews who moved phone or electric wires as needed.
"It was pretty amazing," said Joe Shelton, 21, of Kennett Square.
Months of planning went into preparing the route, which was designed to minimize the impact on the public and the environment, said Woernle. The project is part of a $400 million upgrade at Three Mile Island, which is owned by Exelon.
Some of the advance work included widening, reconfiguring, or reinforcing roads and bridges, Woernle said. The route also required detours, which enabled some commuters to duplicate the snail's pace of the generators as they experienced rush-hour gridlock in places like downtown Oxford.
After traveling 41/2 miles, the convoy set up camp for the night in Glen Roy, where a crowd quickly gathered.
Today the vehicles will continue north on Route 272, crossing the Octoraro Creek into Lancaster County. Details are at www.areva-np.com (click USA under Regional Access), and updates are on Twitter.
For those who prefer a firsthand look, State Police Cpl. Leo P. Hegarty has some advice: Select a wide-open area along the route well in advance and stay there.
He said he wasn't surprised by the interest.
"It's truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience," he said.
Woernle agreed. Although she had the opportunity to ride in the caravan's mobile-office truck, she said she and some of her colleagues preferred to walk, allowing them to interact with the public and answer questions.
"We're calling it the steam-generator diet," she said.
Contact staff writer Kathleen Brady Shea at 610-696-3815 or kbrady@phillynews.com.
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