‘Pea soup’ fog prevents transport of tank

Fog tanked the transport of a 350,000-litre stainless steel water tank from Invercargill to Dunedin on Monday evening.

Tira Crown Invercargill workshop manager Joe Timpany said all the planning to transport the tanks had gone to schedule but thick fog thwarted the plans.

"They had to park it up because it became too dangerous to move ... [visibility] was pea soup."

The decision to delay the journey was made by the transport company less than 9km into the planned 180km journey because the low visibility created a significant motoring hazard.

The journey to the Otago site was initially planned to take three days as the exceptionally wide load could only move at night when there was less traffic and would be routed through Clydevale to cross the Clutha River, Mr Timpany said.

While the fog put the move a day behind schedule, he expected the tanks would still be installed ahead of schedule.

"We’ve got the weekend as a buffer, so that’s OK."

He did not anticipate any further delays from the weather.

toni.mcdonald@odt.co.nz