I-77 East River Mountain Tunnel NB tube could be closed for 'days' after fire

[rickmastfan67]

http://www.wvva.com/story/26115117/2014/07/25/east-river-mountain-tunnel-shutdown-due-to-vehicle-fire
http://myfox8.com/2014/07/25/fire-shuts-i-77-tunnel-in-virginia/

VDOT has also closed NB I-77 @ I-81 to prevent any extra traffic from going that way for now.

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http://www.register-herald.com/latestnews/x197371851/Tractor-trailer-fire-engulfs-East-River-Tunnel-in-cloud-of-black-smoke

First Sgt. K.S. McCall of the Virginia State Police said U.S. 52 over East River Mountain is open, but only to passenger vehicles. State Police are working to keep tractor-trailers off the highway, allowing only passenger cars to go up the mountain.

Somebody didn't get the message that it's now VA/WV-598 now and that US-52 is with I-77 in the tunnel.

[SP Cook]

Got caught by it.  Best alternate is to bypass it back 100s of miles depending on where you are going (for example Cleveland bound traffic from say HH night take 26 to 40 to 75 to 71).  Best local detour is 81 north at Wytheville to VA 100/ Wilderness Road at Dublin to 460back to Princeton.

[rickmastfan67]

http://www.wvva.com/story/26115117/2014/07/25/east-river-mountain-tunnel-shutdown-due-to-vehicle-fire

UPDATE (WVVA) -Emergency officials now say the northbound side of the East River Mountain Tunnel could reopen sometime overnight. Watch Caroline Bach's report for the latest information.

Guess the damage wasn't as bad as first thought if they think they can re-open the NB tube this quickly.  They have also added a picture of the remains of the truck.

And here's the link to Caroline Bach's report: http://www.wvva.com/category/137959/video-landing-page?clipId=10408042&autostart=true

[rickmastfan67]

http://www.wvva.com/story/26115117/2014/07/25/east-river-mountain-tunnel-shutdown-due-to-vehicle-fire

And both NB lanes are now fully re-opened.  Man, that was fast!  Thank goodness the damage wasn't as bad as first thought to be able to get the highway re-opened fully in less than 48 hours!

[SP Cook]

RANT:

I was behind this, heading back up from the beach in SC.  I was tipped off by friends back home, and thus turned on my GPS (to get XM nav traffic, since the major function of GPS is to get you lost), activated VDOT's app and listened to news channels.

Major fail.  Apparently no one bothered to tell NC that anything was wrong.  None of their electronic signs were active.  No news stations made any note of it.   When I got to the VA line the signs read "I 77 N closed at I 81 S, Consider alternative route".  That is it.  No sugusestion of what the alternative route might be.  Nav traffic at the same time updated by simply removing I-77 between 81 and 460 from the map and tried it is illogical way to then figure up a route, which wasn't bad by GPS standards (81 N to 460 W via Blacksburg).  The VDOT app tweeted "Big Walker Mountain Tunnel closed", which was only technically correct (eventually they simply closed 77 between 81 and 460).  With no info on the old US 52 over the mountain route.  (Conflicting reports on WVVA that it was either also closed, or closed to trucks, in fact it was de facto open only southbound, as you could not reach that point going north, due to 77 being closed 30 miles south of that). 

Don't know for a fact, but southbound was, I am told similar.  WV simply dumped traffic off at Princeton, given motorists (if they knew how) the option of going E on 460 to either Dublin or Blacksburg) or W to the old 52 or all the way to Abingdon.

And, I have been told this.  The tunnels are supposed to be completely seperate.  Share no systems.  Seperate vents.  Even seperate electric service.  One tunnel could colapse and they could open the crossovers and put up cones (which are kept on site) and establish a two lane traffic situation in a few minutes. 

[rickmastfan67]

I think the reason they needed to keep the SB tubes closed during the fire was because the emergency crews needed to use them to get back and forth to each side of the tunnels.