IT IS a motorist's nightmare - stuck behind a huge load that trundles along at about five miles an hour.

But a £9m project could make such highway misery a thing of the past - or at least make it less frequent in the North-East.

Vast pieces of machinery such as generators, turbines and petro-chemical plant could soon be transported on boats instead of lorries.

A Staffordshire company is building what it calls a multi-purpose pontoon (MPP) and a smaller Inland Navigator to take huge cargoes by sea and river.

The firm, Robert Wynn and Sons, based at Eccleshall, said the craft would be able to use rivers such as the Tees, Tyne, Wear and Ouse.

It has won an £8.5m freight facilities grant from the Department of Transport, which is concerned about the impact slow, heavy loads have on the country's roads and environment.

With congestion expected to increase during the coming years, the Government is looking to waterways as an alternative - a nod back to the days in the early 19th Century when canals played a major role in transporting goods.

The MPP, which is being built in Holland and is expected to be ready in 2004, will be 80 metres long, 16 metres wide, big enough to hold 20 double-decker buses, and carry a load of 1,200 tonnes.

The craft will be semi-submersible and, like something out of the 1960s science fiction show Thunderbirds, will be able to carry its smaller sister vessel piggy back.

It will be able to operate at sea and in larger waterways, and will load and off-load at conventional berths, riverbanks and even beaches.

The Inland Navigator has been created by converting an inland barge and will be able to take single items weighing up to 300 tonnes or multiple loads of up to 400 tonnes.

The MPP will carry it and its load by sea to shallower rivers that the smaller craft can navigate but the larger craft cannot.

Peter Wynn, managing director of the not-for-profit company, believes the venture could benefit North-East engineering manufacturers looking to move huge loads and industries in the region, such as Teesside's chemical plants, that need massive components.

He said: "We believe we are not only contributing to the easing of congestion on the roads of the North-East, but also opening the way for other initiatives to move freight onto the region's inland waterway routes.

"We look to local industry and transport planners to embrace the opportunities that the MPP project will create and stand ready to work alongside them to realise the potential benefits."

Shipping Minister David Jamieson said he was delighted to support a measure that would lead to a real reduction in the mileage abnormal loads travel on the country's roads