It is a shameful exercise in grandstanding, but the article cited by Ars about the difficulty in transporting the shuttle is, in my opinion, wrong.

When they needed to move the shuttle-sized Muon G-2 magnet ring from Brookhaven to Fermilab, they carefully packaged it up and sent it by barge for 85% of the trip. The east coast and gulf coast portions used the intracoastal waterway, which is exactly the same route they would use for the shuttle. And yes, that magnet ring is a hell of a lot more fragile than a shuttle.

I’m sorry to say, but transportation is not at all a barrier to such a move.

Here is a photo of it passing St. Louis. You can see how tiny it looks compared to the kind of barge they’d use:

https://muon-g-2.fnal.gov/bigmove/images/gallery/20130719-St...