[bsder]

Why this huge roundabout route? The route looks like autobahn almost all the way. Fixed comment about weight: 200 tons is 400,000 lbs--it's heavy but not absurdly so.

We'd put this on the road in the US without much fanfare. You'd need some civil engineers to check the road ratings and clearances.

I mean, this is what we consider heavy for roads in the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4pn4a4a2lA

Edit: I can't read. It's 200 tons not 100 tons. That's getting heavy, but I would still expect things like the autobahn to be able to handle that with an appropriate carrier.

[bayindirh]

For these kinds of cargo, you can't decide the route yourself. You ask to the government bureau which handles the roads with your specs, and they give you the route after checking it with the road specs and clearances. Insurance also needs these documents.

After you insure your cargo, you take the exact route the bureau provided, and if something happens due to road conditions, government pays your damages.

Dad was working in insurance. This is the standard procedure.

[bsder]

> After you insure your cargo, you take the exact route the bureau provided, and if something happens due to road conditions, government pays your damages.

That is not how it works in Texas.

Yes, the state gives you a route. However, it is always the responsibility of the carrier to make sure that everything on the way has appropriate ratings and heights. If the state runs your 15' load under a 14' 6" bridge or runs your 80,000lb load over a 40,000lb rated bridge, it is incumbent upon the driver/carrier to not hit the bridge or collapse it.

I knew several of the people who used to work out these permits. If they missed something, sometimes a driver would have to back a load up (yes, in reverse as the load would be too big to turn around) for 20 or 30 miles to change routes. If you were on an unusual route, for some reason, the maps they used didn't always have the correct heights marked for every interchange.

[bayindirh]

Wow. That's insane if you ask me.

[plorg]

If I had to guess the biggest problem for most roads is the height, followed by the width. Weight might still come into play for some potential routes that otherwise had enough clearance. It's not clear from that video but it's quite possible the load fits in the 14' height limit for interstates in the state of Texas. That would make this at least twice as tall.

[bsder]

Yeah, I hadn't thought about it, but you're probably correct that height is the issue.

The Jochenstein lock that was mentioned is 7.8m and they barely cleared under it. That would be quite a tall load and then you have to add the height of the carrier. You can easily run out of options for something that tall and the German routes look like they use cloverleaf interchanges which could easily be obstacles.

> load fits in the 14' height limit for interstates in the state of Texas

There are special routes up and out from the Houston ship channel that use mostly diamond interchanges that could accommodate even something like this. However, the roads that this would have traversed in Germany are laughably small by Texas freeway standards so I can certainly see there being no way to get between the two points.

[roomey]

I would imagine the size meant it wouldn't get far by road. Bridges and houses would have made the route too narrow.

It looks like they only just squeezed under a bridge on the Danube in the bottoms pictures

[Hikikomori]

Our roads are made for Fiat 500, not Ford f750.