MACEDONIA, Ohio — Nine days after a fiery tanker truck crash in Summit County left a driver dead, repairs and clean up are still ongoing, but road closures are also lightening up.
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has announced the reopening of two lanes of traffic on the southbound side of State Route 8 in Macedonia.
On January 27th, a tanker truck carrying 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel went off the I-271 bridge onto State Route 8 in Macedonia. The truck driver died as the vehicle burst into flames.
Multiple highway ramps and part of State Route 8 closed in the aftermath.
On Sunday, State Route 8 southbound reopened to two lanes of traffic between Highland Rd. and Hines Hill Rd.
The reopening was of great relief to area businesses.
3 News checked back in with Whistle Express Car Wash at the corner of State Route 8 and Highland Rd. Site Manager Michele Martin had told us sales had dipped 85 to 90 percent while State Route 8 was closed.
"We're back up to our normal flow and we've also been getting some new customers as well," she said Monday. "So, opening the lanes up out here and getting rid of the orange cones and barrels and everything has tremendously helped. Things are back to normal."
Ohio Department of Transportation District 4 Spokesman Justin Chesnic said the ramps from State Route 8 northbound to I-271 northbound and from I-271 southbound to State Route 8 southbound will continue to be reduced to one lane each while cleanup and final bridge inspections occur.
"Whenever that fire happened, you had soot on the bridges, some smoke and things like that turned those structures black. So, they have to clean those structures off," he explained. "We also had the diesel fuel that spilled onto the ground was running into the Brandywine Creek. So, the Ohio EPA is there as well and they're doing their clean up there with the stream. So, those crews are still underneath the bridge there. They need room to stage their equipment and do things like that."
He said thankfully, damage to bridge wasn't structural.
"Where we're at is it was cosmetic," he continued. "We have a few concrete piers that are underneath the bridge where there was a little bit of damage to those. So we can patch those and wrap those."
Chesnic says it could be another three weeks before all clean up and repair work is finished and both ramps are fully opened back up.
A week ago, a civil engineer told 3 News that guardrails or a lower speed limit could keep an accident like this one from happening again. We put those solutions forward to ODOT.
“I think once the Summit County Sheriff's Office investigation is completed, we'll take a look at things like that for sure," Chesnic responded. "That bridge has been there since 2008. We have not had any issues there, any crash patterns or any kind of things happen there. So, we'll definitely take a look at those kind of things, again, once that investigation is over, that will kind of help us know what exactly caused that crash.”
The Summit County Sheriff's Office is leading the investigation of how the crash happened. We reached out to them multiple times for an update on Monday and are waiting to hear back, but while talking to ODOT they told us the Sheriff's Office is still investigating and has yet to release their findings.
3 News also checked back in with Ohio EPA for an update Monday. This was their response.
"Ohio EPA oversaw environmental contractors when containment booms were installed in the Brandywine Creek at the accident site, and further downstream to contain and recover any contaminants from the accident. Ohio EPA continues to inspect the containment /recovery locations and oversee ongoing abatement efforts.
An environmental contractor is on site to complete abatement actions. They are conducting power washing of the bridges to remove the discoloration due to the fire. This step might be completed by the end of this week. Once power washing is complete, soil excavation to remove any residual contamination left in the soil and from the power washing will begin. During this process, sampling of the creek at the accident site and further downstream will take place. Sampling of the water quality will also take place once the excavation is completed.
Containment booms will remain in place near the accident site and along the bank of Brandywine Creek throughout the cleanup process. So far, several roll-off boxes of impacted soil and 3,500 gallons of diesel-impacted water have been removed for proper disposal from the site by the environmental contractor. Unfortunately, there is no way to know an estimated amount of diesel fuel released into Brandywine Creek because it is unclear how much fuel was consumed by the fire.
As this is a phased approach to the cleanup, it is uncertain as to when completion of site activities will occur." - Anthony Chenault, Media Coordinator for Ohio EPA
ODOT also said the ramp from SR 8 northbound/southbound to I-271 northbound/southbound will remain reduced to one lane for the "next several weeks" while cleanup and inspection efforts continue.
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