Spilled Tar Causes Problems On Pennsylvania Turnpike

Source: Pittsburgh KDKA

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Traffic is backed up on the Pennsylvania Turnpike because of tar leaking from a tanker.

This is happening eastbound between the Allegheny Valley and New Castle exits.

(more)

Read more: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/11/22/sticky-substance-ties-up-traffic-on-pennsylvania-turnpike/

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This sounds like a huge mess. If you are traveling between Ohio and Pennsylvania, you may want to check on the progress of the clean up before you leave.

best shit in the World!

Thanksgiving travelers, Holy Cows!

5 gal. cans of silver paint. A car cut in front of him and he had to slam on the brakes. Most of the cans tipped over and there was tar and silver paint all over the street, running down the hill. I raced home, about a mile away, got my camera and came back and took a bunch of pictures.

The truck was only a couple of blocks away from where he had picked the load up, and management, wearing Tyvek suits, spent hours cleaning the mess up.

The truck driver got fired.

(not really, look at the pic in the article)

PITTSBURGH (AP) – A flood of gooey muck dropped from a tanker truck disabled more than 100 cars and damaged an unknown number of other vehicles along a nearly 40-mile stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, officials said.

A leaking valve on a tanker spread driveway sealant over the eastbound lanes of a long stretch of the Turnpike between New Castle and the Oakmont Service Plaza on Tuesday night, Turnpike spokesman Bill Capone said.

Turnpike operations officials on Wednesday said 150 or more cars were disabled when the sticky goo covered their tires and wheels. Some state police and turnpike maintenance vehicles had to be towed away after getting stuck in the tar-like substance, according to the turnpike operations center.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-11-23/sticky-goo-pennsylvania-turnpike/51368112/1

Not a good way to start the holiday.

The tanker was leaking driveway sealant. At first, we all thought it was just straight tar from a paving truck, but it was in globular sheets all over the tires and undercarriages of hundreds of cars. People were pulled over en masse and some of them couldn't drive and needed towed, the stuff was so thickly packed.

Luckily, only our passenger-side front tire got about 1/2 an inch of the stuff on the outer rim . . . about an hour's worth of driving got the remainder of it off after a while. And even more lucky was that a) most people had absorbed it before we got to it, b) it was confined to mostly the right side of the freeway, c) after a while, the remaining sealant on the road was dried into easily-avoidable blobs thanks to maintenance crews sand-covering and pushing it.

We went to the rest stop . . . it was packed with people scraping that stuff, SHEETS of it, off of their tires, wheel covers and rims.

Yes, quite a maddening drive south, combined with the fact that it rained pretty much non-stop with trucks ALL over the highway driving in close quarters. Very nerve-wracking.

I'm so glad you didn't get the worst of it. Being from the Pittsburgh area, we travel the turnpike frequently and it can sometimes be hellish without driveway sealant, rain and Thanksgiving traffic. :) I'm also glad there were no major accidents reported which is amazing considering the circumstances.

We should do one from New Jersey to California, as well.