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 Spruce
Goose ready to roll across road
By DAVID
BATES
Of the News-Register
For all the hoopla surrounding the Spruce Goose on Saturday,
the main event - the moving of the world's largest airplane across
Highway 18 - will probably take only about 15 minutes, maybe
even less.
Five pieces of the historic, 300,000-pound airplane are scheduled
to begin rolling about 10 a.m. at what officials from Evergreen
International Aviation describe as "walking speed."
 Highway
18 will be restricted to one lane each way, beginning at 8 a.m.,
from the Highway 99 junction
northeast of town at McDougall's Corner to the downtown McMinnville
junction just west of the museum site. It will be closed entirely
from about 9 to about 10 a.m. to accommodate the move itself.
Trucks will crawl across the five-lane highway with pieces
of the Spruce Goose, starting with the smallest, the pair making
up the plane's tail section. Those pieces will be followed by
the two wings, then the fuselage itself.
Utility lines are being moved out of the way to get the pieces
through. They would not clear otherwise.
"Imagine how long it would take to walk 800 feet,"
said Mike Wright, who is heading the restoration and reassembly
of the plane. "That's how long it will take."
The plane will be accompanied by a parade featuring a color
guard, Scout troops and a cadre of dignitaries. Participants
will assemble in the staging area at 9 a.m.
Vendors will hawk food, souvenirs and other items. Officials
will direct visitors to parking places, chemical toilets and
other facilities.
A shuttle will run people from the parking lot at the Yamhill
Marketplace, formerly the Tanger Outlet Center, to the move site.
The existing museum on the south side of the highway will be
open for business at the usual admission prices, and visitors
will be given the chance to check out the new museum, under construction
on the north side, at no charge.
The new facility, featuring 121,000 square feet of glass and
steel, is expected to open early in 2001. While the Spruce Goose
will be its centerpiece, it will also house the existing museum's
collection of smaller, vintage aircraft.
More than $16 million has been spent on the museum so far,
according to Tim Wahlberg, chairman of McMinnville-based Evergreen
International Aviation. Museum official Rick Smithrud said this
week that the goal is to make the Captain Michael King Smith
Evergreen Aviation Educational Institute one of the top five
tourist destinations in Oregon.
Museum officials said that plans for the move are on track.
They are actually spending more time getting ready for what could
be an audience of several thousand people - and a national, even
international, media audience - than they are for the move itself,
they said.
"It looks like the Goose-moving part will be the smoothest
and most efficient part of it," said James Nelson, a museum
spokesman.
The media hoopla will begin at 3 a.m. local time - 6 a.m.
East Coast time - with the beginning of live filming by CNN.
Heavy coverage is also expected on Portland television.
Dave Davis of the Oregon Department of Transportation said
all access roads to Highway 18 between the two closure points
will be closed between 10 and 11 a.m. Closures will be advertised
heavily with message boards in appropriate places, he said.
After the plane is across, the highway will remain closed
long enough for people who have gathered on the south side of
Three Mile Lane to cross the road so they can visit the new museum,
which is under construction on the north side.
Then, Davis said, "We'll open it back up to one lane
again. But people need to realize there's going to be a lot of
traffic in that area."
Officials plan to keep the center lane open for emergency
vehicles. They said the flaggers are being provided by a private
company hired by the museum, not by ODOT.
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