200,000-pound oversize load makes it to Erie Canal, heads east for Navy

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Eddie Quatro (left), 7, of Albion and his brother Danny, 9, have the binoculars out to watch a condenser from the Graham Corp. in Batavia be loaded onto a barge at about 10 a.m. today.

Eddie and Danny are home-schooled. Their mother Ellie Quatro wanted the boys to see the cranes moving the big piece of equipment onto the barge.

“This is the perfect field trip that came to us today,” she said.

The condenser is about 200,000 pounds. It left Batavia early this morning around 4 a.m. and headed down 98.

Stephanie DiGiulio took this photo and the one below of the condenser going down Route 31A in Barre. A caravan helped move the equipment on the slow journey.

The route included Route 98, to 31A in Barre, then down Gaines Basin Road before turning right on Albion-Eagle Harbor Road.

There were people to raise the wires so the equipment could pass through without taking down utilities.

Graham did a similar effort on May 25, 2022, when a condenser was taken from Batavia to Albion by truck, and then loaded onto a barge. That condenser was used for a nuclear submarine. Graham officials declined to discuss the condenser this morning.

The Tug Edna A with Barge 82 is taking the condenser east along the canal. The shipment’s final destination is in Quonset Point, Rhode Island. The condenser will be used by the Navy.

The Tug Edna A is owned by the New York State Marine Highway Transportation Company of Troy. It picked up the oversize load along the canal just east of the Gaines Basin Road bridge.

There were several onlookers to see the huge cranes move the 200,000-pound package.

The condenser is on site by the canal and a worker checks it before being lifted onto the barge.

These cyclists ride on the towpath and get closer to the heavy equipment moving the package onto the barge.