HOUSTON – All mainlanes have reopened on the Southwest Freeway at Hillcroft Street after being closed for several hours due to an overturned dump truck Friday, according to Houston police.
Around noon, it was reported that the dump truck overturned and spilled “raw sewage wast” on the Southwest Freeway, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.
VIDEO: Major traffic backup on Southwest Freeway due to overturned dump truck
The company that owns the dump truck, WCA Waste, said there were no injuries to the driver and no other drivers were involved in the accident. The company said the dump truck was carrying non-hazardous wastewater from a local water treatment facility.
Michael Roy, vice president and general counsel at WCA Waste, released the following written statement:
“One of our trucks carrying non-hazardous wastewater sludge from a local water treatment facility tipped over early this afternoon on U.S. 69 near the Hillcroft exit. There were no injuries to the driver or any other person. No other vehicles were involved. Haz-mat promptly responded and cleaned up the discharge from our truck. We regret that this incident occurred and any traffic inconvenience it caused.”
Drivers were asked to take an alternate route until the scene is cleared.
The spill took hazmat crews several hours to clean up. Around 7 p.m., all mainlanes were reopened.
Update - hazmat clean up continues and may take another 1-2 hours. All mainlanes of I-69 SW Freeway SB at Westpark remain blocked. Traffic extremely heavy all along I-69 SB approaching incident. Seek alternate route. Expect delays. pic.twitter.com/gPuIXVR1KU
— TxDOT- HOU District (@TxDOTHouston) February 14, 2020