PHOTOS: Cooking oil spilled on HRBT causes closures

HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — Cooking oil that spilled from a truck traveling through the eastbound tube of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Friday morning caused lane closures.

“The incident was first detected by the HRBT Control Room just before 4 a.m., when the control room operators first noticed what appeared to be a disabled tractor-trailer in the eastbound tunnel near the tunnel exit and observed other vehicles slowing as if to avoid something in the roadway,” a release from VDOT states.

All HRBT eastbound lanes in Hampton were closed, and the west lanes had to open periodically to allow some traffic through. All lanes were reopened to traffic around 7:30 a.m.

Traffic backups were more than five miles during the closure.

The tractor-trailer had already made its way out of the tunnel onto the HRBT’s South Island and had left the scene before the spill was identified and before any contact could be made with the driver, according to VDOT.

Crews spread oil dry materials onto the affected area and additional crews were dispatched from VDOT’s Pine Chapel Area Headquarters with a sweeper truck to sweep up the oil dry materials back off the roadway. The HRBT Expansion Project’s contractor, Hampton Roads Connector Partners (HRCP), also assisted in spreading the oil dry and providing a second sweeper truck.

Crews worked to help with congestion by temporarily closing the westbound lanes at various periods to allow the eastbound traffic to be turned around and rediverted westbound. Traffic was also being diverted off at Settlers Landing Road prior to reaching the HRBT. 

Meanwhile, there were also delays at the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel on I-664, which is an alternate route to the HRBT, because of a disabled tractor-trailer. That incident was in the city of Newport News, near 26th Street, according to VDOT.