Westbound lanes of Interstate 80 were closed Sunday near Colfax, with traffic detouring through Secret Town, following an oil spill by a semi-tanker. An incident log for the California Highway Patrol showed that a semi-tanker that had pulled over with its flashers on began leaking oil at 10:38 a.m. near the junction with Highway 174. Another driver nearly lost control of their vehicle when they hit the oil slick, they told the CHP in an emergency call at that time. Workers initially kept the first
westbound lane open, since the spill was contained to the second lane. The decision to do a hard closure of the freeway was made at 10:50 a.m. so that the fuel could be cleaned up. In all, approximately 100 to 120 gallons of diesel spilled onto the freeway. The CHP log noted that the driver “hit something in the roadway and it ruptured the bottom of the tank.” A CHP spokesperson said that the closure was west of the Cape Horn undercrossing to Colfax. The
spokesperson didn’t know when the freeway would fully reopen and said that cleanup was still underway as of about 1 p.m. The incident log noted just before 1:30 p.m. that a hard closure was in place at Secret Town and that there was the possibility of an additional hard closure at Rollins.
CHP, Interstate 80, Colfax, diesel spill, semi-tanker, Secret Town, Cape Horn undercrossing, Highway 174, Rollins