A day after one of the most travelled sections of freeway in the San Francisco Bay area melted and collapsed following a fiery crash, residents on Monday began what could be their worst commute in almost two decades.
An elevated section of highway that carries motorists from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to a number of freeways was destroyed early on Sunday after heat from an overturned gasoline truck caused part of one overpass to crumple on to another.
”I’ve never seen anything like it,” said officer Trent Cross, of the California Highway Patrol. ”I’m looking at this thinking, ‘Wow, no one died’ — that’s amazing. It’s just very fortunate.”
Authorities predicted the crash would cause the worst disruption for commuters since a 1989 earthquake damaged the bridge itself. The sight of a soaring freeway twisted into a fractured mass of steel and concrete was reminiscent of the damage from the Loma Prieta quake.
Even before dawn on Monday, traffic in the area was beginning to back up earlier than usual.
Standing near the wreckage on Sunday night, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed that the state would respond quickly. He declared a state of emergency to speed up clean-up and rebuilding efforts. He also authorised free transit on Monday on ferries, buses and the rail system that takes commuters across the bay.
Transportation officials said it could take months to repair the damaged interchanges, and advised motorists to use public transportation in and out of San Francisco. They added trains to the rail system, and bus and ferry operators also expanded service.
”People are going to have to find a different way to work and back home in the evening, so we are asking them to plan ahead and do their homework,” said Jeff Weiss, spokesperson for the California department of transportation. ”This isn’t going to be fixed in a matter of days.”
Nearly 75 000 vehicles used the damaged portion of the road every day. But because the accident occurred where three highways converge, authorities said it could cause commuting problems for hundreds of thousands of people. State transportation officials said 280 000 commuters take the Bay Bridge into San Francisco each day.
Though heat from the fire was intense enough to weaken the freeway and damage a 76m stretch of highway, the truck’s driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. James Mosqueda (51), of Woodland, went to a gas station and called a taxi, which took him to a hospital, Cross said.
A preliminary investigation indicated Mosqueda may have been speeding on the curving road, he said. Mosqueda was being treated in a hospital for burns on Sunday. Efforts to reach him there were unsuccessful.
He was headed from a refinery in Benicia to a gas station near the Oakland airport when the accident occurred, police said.
The crash occurred at about 3.45am local time on the MacArthur Maze, a network of ramps and interchanges at the edge of downtown Oakland and about 800m from the Bay Bridge toll plaza. Witnesses reported flames rising up to 60m into the air.
Heat exceeded 1 510 degrees Celsius and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange above to buckle. Bolts holding the structure together also melted, leading to the collapse, California department of transportation director Will Kempton said. — Sapa-AP
Associated Press writer Tom Verdin in San Diego contributed to this report