Roofing nails, paint spill on Renton freeway cause big traffic backups
Jan 30, 2013, 10:10 AM | Updated: 10:53 am
Crews worked to clean the paint spill that at one point caused a three-mile traffic back up in Renton. (WSDOT Photo)
(WSDOT Photo)
A paint spill closed down the two right lanes of northbound SR 167, just before on 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
When crews found roofing nails on the road and started to clean the mess, they closed all lanes.
At one point, a three-mile back-up led up to the scene, where crews had to shut down all three lanes of the roadway to clean the mess.
“Our typical plan is to go out there with a sand truck and get sand out there to try and absorb it and then go over it with a sweeper truck to try and pick up that stuff,” explained WSDOT Spokesman Bart Treece.
Crews were able to open one lane about 40 minutes later to let some of mid-morning traffic through.
“We get unusual stuff that happens on the roadway from time to time, and you know our job is to clean it up,” said Treece. “Sometimes we get eggs, sometimes we get milk, sometimes we get fish, today we got paint.”
