Giant magnet set to reach new home in Illinois
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The electromagnet moves down Interstate 88 in Naperville, Ill., Friday, July 26, 2013 on its way to Fermilab. The electromagnet is 50 feet wide, weighs more than 15 tons and has taken a month to transport 3,200 miles from New York to Illinois. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)
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Onlookers watch and take photos as the electromagnet passes by on Butterfield Road in Glen Ellyn, Ill., Thursday, July 25, 2013 enroute to its new home outside Chicago on Friday. The electromagnet is 50 feet wide, weighs more than 15 tons and has taken a month to transport 3,200 miles from New York to Illinois. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)
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Onlookers watch and take photos as the electromagnet passes by on Butterfield Road in Glen Ellyn, Ill., Thursday, July 25, 2013 enroute to its new home outside Chicago on Friday. The electromagnet is 50 feet wide, weighs more than 15 tons and has taken a month to transport 3,200 miles from New York to Illinois. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)
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The electromagnet moves down Interstate 88 in Naperville, Ill., Friday, July 26, 2013 on its way to Fermilab. The electromagnet is 50 feet wide, weighs more than 15 tons and has taken a month to transport 3,200 miles from New York to Illinois. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)
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The electromagnet sits on a special platform in Glen Ellyn, Ill., Thursday, July 25, 2013 before the final move of the electromagnet to its new home outside Chicago on Friday. The electromagnet is 50 feet wide, weighs more than 15 tons and has taken a month to transport 3,200 miles from New York to Illinois. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)
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Chris Polly, center, project director for Fermilab, speaks during a safety briefing in Glen Ellyn, Ill., Thursday, July 25, 2013 before the final move of the electromagnet. The electromagnet is 50 feet wide, weighs more than 15 tons and has taken a month to transport 3,200 miles from New York to Illinois. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)
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A worker walks underneath the electromagnet as it moves down Butterfield Road in Glen Ellyn, Ill., Thursday, July 25, 2013 enroute to its new home outside Chicago on Friday. The electromagnet is 50 feet wide, weighs more than 15 tons and has taken a month to transport 3,200 miles from New York to Illinois. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)
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The electromagnet begins to move down Butterfield Road in Glen Ellyn, Ill., Thursday, July 25, 2013 enroute to its new home outside Chicago on Friday. The electromagnet is 50 feet wide, weighs more than 15 tons and has taken a month to transport 3,200 miles from New York to Illinois. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)
CHICAGO (AP) — It’s 50 feet wide, weighs more than 15 tons and has taken a month to transport 3,200 miles from New York to Illinois.
It’s a gigantic electromagnet and it’s scheduled to end its unlikely journey to its new home outside Chicago on Friday.
Batavia’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will use it to study blazing fast particles.
What’s not blazing fast is the magnet on the last leg of its journey. This week, it’s moved by truck at between 5 and 15 mph.
En route from a federal laboratory in New York, it was floated down the East Coast into the Gulf of Mexico, then up river to Illinois.
The used magnet cost $3.5 million to transport. But it would have cost far more to construct a new one.
