A stretch of highway near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed on Sunday after a gasoline tanker crashed and burst into flames, leaving one of the nation's busiest spans in a state of near paralysis. Officials said traffic could be disrupted for months.
Flames shot 60m in the air and the heat was intense enough to melt part of the freeway and cause the collapse, but the truck's driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported.
Authorities said the damage could take months to repair, and that it would cause the worst disruption for Bay Area commuters since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged a section of the Bay Bridge itself.
PHOTO: AFP
Nearly 75,000 vehicles use the portion of the road every day. But because the accident occurred where three highways converge, authorities said it could cause commuting problems for hundreds of thousands of people. State transportation officials said 280,000 commuters take the bridge into San Francisco each day.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency.
"I have issued an emergency declaration in order to begin immediate repair and replacement of the interchange in Emeryville," the governor said in a statement.
"This declaration will streamline public contracting and environmental codes and provide emergency funding to allow repair operations to begin immediately."
Transportation officials said they already had added trains to the Bay Area Rapid Transit light rail system that takes commuters across San Francisco Bay, and were urging people to telecommute if possible.
State officials said motorists who tried to take alternate routes yesterday instead of relying on public transportation would face nightmarish commutes.
The tanker carrying 33,000 litres of gasoline ignited around 3:45am after crashing into a pylon on the interchange, which connects westbound lanes of Interstate 80 to southbound I-880, on the edge of downtown Oakland about 800m from the Bay Bridge's toll plaza.
A preliminary investigation indicated the driver may have been speeding on the curving road, Cross said.
Witnesses reported flames rising up to 60m into the air. Heat exceeded 1,510oC and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 above to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to melt, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.
The charred section of collapsed freeway was draped at a sharp angle onto the highway beneath, exposing a web of twisted metal beneath the concrete.
The cost of the repairs would likely run into the tens of millions of dollars, and the state was seeking federal disaster aid, Kempton said.
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