Hauling company Omega Morgan is tweaking its route options for moving oversized loads through Oregon to Nevada.

The companys first proposal was to move three loads from the Port of Umatilla east to Pendleton and then south on U.S. Highway 395 through Grant County to Burns, and then via highways 78 and 95 to Nevada.

An Oregon Department of Transportation official said Thursday the company has since found it cannot use a bridge on the southern stretch.

The company is still looking at the southbound route on Highway 395 to Mt. Vernon, but then staying on Highway 26 east though John Day and Prairie City to Ontario.

The plan calls for moving three loads of water purification equipment parts of evaporators used in energy development such as the tar sands oil project in Canada.

Holly Zander, of the Leopold Ketel public relations firm, said Omega Morgan is still aiming for late November for a first load. The subsequent loads would move in December.

Omega Morgan, based in Hillsboro, transports large equipment for companies including General Electric.

Tom Strandberg, ODOT spokesman, said the state agencys primary concern is safety for the driving public, and that the activity doesnt damage the infrastructure.

We want to make sure whatever happens is going to be safe, he said.

He said the company is talking about holding public meetings along the route to talk to the communities before the shipments move.

The Oregon route was proposed after a GE shipment headed for the Canadian tar sands project stirred protests and legal action last summer. Members of the Nez Perce Tribe faced down police and the megaload, forming a human chain to block the massive transport rig as it moved across northern Idaho.

In news reports, a tribal spokesman said the issues were a matter of sovereignty for the tribes, and they also objected to tar sands project as total destruction to that environment.

The projects opponents succeeded in getting a federal judge to issue an injunction prohibiting use of Highway 12, along a Wild and Scenic River corridor, until adequate environmental reviews can be done.