The four outbound lanes of the Stevenson Expressway near 1st Avenue were closed for more than six hours Wednesday after a tanker truck buckled and spilled flammable material onto the highway.
The 6,500-gallon capacity tanker belonging to EMCO Chemical Distributors Inc. of North Chicago split open about 8:15 a.m. and leaked about 20 to 30 gallons of acetone, a highly volatile liquid, onto the roadway.
According to the Illinois State Police, the three-quarter-mile stretch of the highway between Harlem and 1st Avenues reopened about 2:40 p.m..
State and EMCO officials said they do not know what caused the tanker to split, although state police believe it may have been a weakened seam in the vehicle.
The tanker had been rebuilt and is 20 to 30 years old.
The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) requires yearly visual inspections and leakage tests of tank trucks. Ron Kaplan, EMCO’s compliance and administrative manager, said Wednesday the tanker received both a visual and leakage examination in November.
No injuries were reported in the incident and there were no evacuations.
Officials from the Summit Fire Department, the Illinois State Police hazardous materials division, IDOT and several other agencies responded to the spill.
The delay in reopening the expressway lanes was caused by precautions taken in cleaning up flammable spills, according to state EPA and police officials.
Illinois EPA spokesman Jim Clark said crews spread foam on the spill surface. Sand was then spread around the area, and the road was hosed down with water before the lanes were reopened.
Workers also grounded the tanker with cables to reduce any chance of any explosions caused by static electricity, according to Master Sgt. Pete Kelly of the state police.
Meanwhile, the acetone in the buckled tanker truck was transferred to another tanker before the damaged truck was towed from the site.
Federal officials estimate that there are 500,000 separate shipments of hazardous materials-which includes some nuclear materials and flammable liquids-on U.S. roads every day.
State officials estimate that 6 to 8 percent of all materials transported on Illinois roads are hazardous.
“It happens all the time,” said Steve Quigley, a spokesman for the Illinois Emergency Services and Disaster Agency (ESDA). “Low-level nuclear waste and hazardous materials travel up and down the road all the time.”
Acetone is a solvent that is the main ingredient in nail-polish remover and in some machine grease removers and laboratory flask cleansers.
