I-5 at SR 2 in LA Partially Closed after Fire Due to Tanker Spill in a Tunnel

[andy3175]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0715-freeway-closed-20130715,0,7790719.story

Ignite 8,500 gallons of gasoline in a two-lane freeway underpass just north of downtown, and you have a prescription for another round of Carmageddon come Monday morning.

Saturday's spectacular inferno off the 2 Freeway has forced the indefinite closure of all northbound lanes and two southbound lanes of the 5 Freeway. Although Caltrans isn't ready to say when traffic will be flowing normally through the area again, the agency is hoping for Tuesday.

That leaves more than 150,000 drivers who use the highway each day needing an alternative route. "We're advising drivers to avoid the area and to take public transportation," Caltrans spokesman Patrick Chandler said.

The closure, just north of Dodger Stadium, occurs at one of the worse choke points in Los Angeles' freeway system.

With the 5 being hemmed in by the L.A. River to the east and the hills of Elysian Park and Silver Lake to the west, alternative routes are not easy to find. With the exception of Riverside Drive, most roads in the area either snake through residential neighborhoods or end in industrial cul-de-sacs.

The fire erupted when a tanker truck overturned in a small tunnel connecting the northbound lanes of the 2 Freeway with the northbound lanes of the 5. Thick black smoke was seen for miles.

The intensity of the tunnel fire has so compromised the roadbed of the 5 that freeway traffic at this point would lead to greater damage, Caltrans said.

Since Saturday, crews have been cleaning up the spilled gasoline that flowed into storm drains and the Los Angeles River, clearing the debris in the tunnel and shoring up the freeway's roadbed.

Erik Scott, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, walked through the charred tunnel Saturday and said softball-size chunks of concrete had fallen.

Chandler reported that rebar was exposed. "It was so hot that the concrete is now brittle," he said. "It is like a popcorn ceiling. Crews are chipping away at it with hammers."

The narrow confines of the tunnel, about 300 feet long and only two lanes and a shoulder wide, magnified the intensity of the blaze.

Caltrans has had experience with freeway fires. In April 2012 a tanker blaze closed the westbound lanes of the 134 Freeway in Glendale. Four months earlier, a tanker truck exploded on the 60 Freeway in Montebello, requiring the demolition and reconstruction of the Paramount Boulevard overpass.

In 2007 a truck crash and fire in a tunnel under the 5 Freeway south of Santa Clarita forced a partial closure for three days. The freeway was temporarily shored up to prevent collapse.

The repairs for the 2 Freeway tunnel will be more extensive than the tunnel in Santa Clarita, according to John Yang, acting deputy district director for maintenance for Caltrans. But it's too early to say what's involved.

Regards,
Andy

[Bickendan]

And then there was the tanker spill/explosion in the MacArthur Maze a few years back...

[andy3175]

As an update...

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_24865238/la-area-freeway-tunnel-scorched-by-fire-reopen

A Los Angeles freeway underpass shut down nearly six months ago by a fiery tanker truck crash will reopen this week. The California Department of Transportation on Friday (January 7, 2014) plans to reopen the connecting tunnel between northbound Interstate 5 and northbound State Route 2 after an estimated $16.5 million worth of clearance and repair work.

The 300-foot tunnel near Glendale was closed in July 2013 after a tanker caught fire and sent a stream of burning fuel into the nearby Los Angeles River. The intense heat charred the concrete, and brittle chunks fell off. Repair work began in November 2013. Caltrans spokesman Patrick Chandler says crews worked nearly around the clock to make repairs. He says the federal government will reimburse the state for the repair costs under an emergency relief program.

Regards,
Andy