Truly amazing pieces of machinery, they are. Though I'm still disappointed that the Shuttle program was killed, I sure am looking forward to what they come up with next!
Isn't there a BadWebber that works for a big equipment mover? He should have some comments on this.
They sure must have done a lot of measuring and dry runs along the route. It was cool how they jogged a little bit to miss that tree and how close the wingtips were to the houses.
That dolly system they used to move the shuttle is like the Holy Grail of moving equipment.
On a move like this, CalTrans gets the dimensions of the object being moved, and they do an analysis on potential routes. Then they send somebody to drive the route and physically measure all the distances between the poles, buildings, trees, etc.
Then they're supposed to do it again to be sure of their findings.
Of course, they can make mistakes... sending CHP officers, civilian pilots and city inspectors into a bottle neck, causing the whole crew to "wing it" and hop curbs, tearing out water pipes and sprinkler heads!
The part in the middle, they had to change over to a lighter dolly system to cross the bridge. Far less maneuverable than the main transport. After they crossed the bridge, they switched back.