At roughly 5:30am three vehicles collided between exits 14 and 15 in Norwalk on Interstate 95. A passenger vehicle, a cargo truck, and a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline collided beneath the Fairfield Avenue Bridge.
Although no serious injuries from the collision were reported, the gasoline in the truck did ignite, causing damage to the bridge and highway.
“They’ve already sent out a text alert to everybody from Port Chester to Bridgeport: Stay away from that area.” Governor Lamont said at a 9:30am press conference, although some Verizon customers report not receiving one. “We’ve given a notice to all the trucking companies and others. If you can, take I-87 or I-84 as alternatives Rail is going, or it’s a good day to work from home if you have that opportunity.”
Lamont said he is in communication with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigeig and Federal authorities as well as Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling who is dealing with significant local traffic jams as well as helping coordinate first responders.
“Stay Away from the Area as best you can,” Lamont said. “The traffic jams are horrendous.”
Alerts about the closure are being broadcast to variable road signs in both New York and Rhode Island as well.
Paul Rizzo the Chief of the Bureau of Highway Operations at the Department of Transportation stressed that the bridge, while damaged was not in imminent danger of collapse. However it would take at least 3 hours to complete the investigation of the crash, and damaged utility lines underneath the bridge were still in need of assessment by utility companies. The long term structural integrity of the bridge would also require assessment, as gasoline can burn hot enough to cause serious deformation.
William Turner, the State Dmergency Management Director also explained that that while 6,500 gallons of fuel either burned or ran off into the Norwalk River during the fire some fuel remains and will need to be removed. The firefighting foam as well as the unignited fuel that ran off are currently the subject of a booming operation by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to minimize ecological damage.
For live updates, the Governor encouraged checking ctroads.org.
Working from home it is!