After a 5-hour headache, crash cleared on Schuylkill Expressway

Route I-76 reopened to traffic at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, almost five hours after a crash involving a tractor-trailer, a dump truck, and a passenger car closed the eastbound lanes just east of the Conshohocken curve.

The accident caused about 300 gallons of diesel fuel to spill onto the Schuylkill Expressway and left the dump truck on its side. At 4 p.m., State Police Trooper Danea Durham said crews were working to remove a load of crushed stone that had spilled from the dump truck. The crash occurred about 11:20 a.m. at mile marker 336, near Waverly Road in Lower Merion Township, officials said. The eastbound roadway was closed much of the day and only one westbound lane was getting by in the immediate area of the crash.

Montgomery County hazardous-materials crews worked to contain the diesel fuel on the highway. The fuel was released when all four saddle tanks carried by the tractor-trailer ruptured.

Durham said there were no reports that the oil had reached the Schuylkill.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation sent a crew with sand to the scene, said Tom Sullivan, the county's public safety director. Firefighters from Lower Merion also responded, he said.

A parallel route, Conshohocken State Road from Mill Creek to Hollow Roads, was shut down for a separate issue involving electrical lines. The closure hampered some units from responding to the accident on I-76, but by midafternoon, Conshohocken State Road was reopened.