April 29th, 2007

Gasoline tanker explodes in the “MacArthur Maze” - what we locals call the intersection of I-80, I-580, and I-880, just beyond the east side terminus of the Bay Bridge linking San Francisco and the East Bay. I love this quote from the San Francisco Chronicle.

The tanker, which was traveling from I-80 full of vehicle-ready gasoline, seems to have disappeared. One Caltrans worker at the scene held up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart to describe how big the tanker is now.

Scene of the accident on Google Maps, now imagine a smoking crater in the center. Tanker was apparently on the roadway below and the ensuing fire collapsed the overpass. Good thing I don’t work in SF, because that happens to be the main route from the Bay Bridge to our house. Still, we take the stretch of 580 just a little bit to the east every day on the way to work (Emeryville is just NE of the maze) so it’ll be “interesting” to see what traffic will be like next week.

Update: we drove past the scene of the collapse this afternoon, joining all the other gawkers on the onramp from I-580 to I-80 N (the one that goes right by IKEA). It was awesome to see, in Susan’s words, “one road folded over the other like a blanket”.

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