Trucks and a utility crew get ready to hit the road Monday morning on Route 8 in Center Township with a “superload” — a steam condenser — headed for a gas power plant in Lawrence County. There was a truck in front pulling the load and one behind pushing it.

At nearly 400 tons, it's worthy of the title “superload.”

The oversized load — a steam condenser — slowly meandered its way through Butler County on Monday via Route 8 and Route 108 en route to a gas power plant outside New Castle.

And it got a lot of double takes and stares from rubberneckers along the three-day trip. Some motorists, stuck in traffic, gave the very wide load the “stink eye,” state police admitted.

“People are upset they're stopped and have to take different routes,” said one Butler trooper that was part of the escort for the trucks moving the load.

The top speed, said one of the drivers for Miller Transfer of Edinburg, Ohio, which is moving the load, at best reached “snail's pace.”

Holtec International of Turtle Creek, Allegheny County supplied the condenser, and that's where the journey began on Friday.

A convoy of vehicles including police cruisers and a utility crew were part of the painstaking transportation operation through four counties.

The load Friday and Saturday navigated a number of roads in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.

Police from Troop D Butler joined the moving force Sunday on Route 356 in the Kiski area. The load moved into Butler County and eventually came through Center Avenue and up Main Street in Butler.

The caravan made an overnight stop at the parking lot of the Belmont II restaurant next to the Kwik Fill at Route 8 and Mercer Road in Center Township before resuming the trek Monday morning.

“The load is just shy of 800,000 pounds and it's spread out over 26 axles,” Trooper Chad Savannah said. “There's a truck in front pulling it and a truck in back pushing it.”

Along for the ride, he said, was a utility crew with a worker in a bucket remove wires and traffic lights for the load to pass, and then to replace them.

From Route 8, the load turned — very slowly — onto Route 108, traveling through Slippery Rock, into Lawrence County and through New Castle before reaching its destination around 3:30 p.m. Monday in North Beaver Township.