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Tumbled Turbine Continues To Block Tunnel by Staff watch KATU News, August 26, 2005

PORTLAND, Ore. - A freeway tunnel in Portland (Oregon) remains mostly blocked by a turbine bound for an Eastern Washington wind farm, and officials say it might not be cleared before tonight. watch KATU's Report

The 157-thousand-pound wind turbine fell off a truck Wednesday afternoon in the tunnel that connects southbound Interstate 205 with eastbound Interstate 84.

It was being hauled from the Port of Vancouver (Washington) to an electricity generating project near Dayton. State transportation officials say a crane must be used to hoist the turbine onto another truck.

First, however, workers have to get the turbine out of the tunnel, and they ran into more trouble when the turbine began falling apart.

The effort was suspended last night to give a break to crews that had been working around the clock. A Transportation Department spokesman, Dave Thompson, estimates it will take at least four or five hours to complete the task when the work resumes, which might not be until this evening.

Meanwhile, traffic through the tunnel is limited to the shoulder.