I-75 reopens after 13 hour closure due to hazmat spill

A hazmat spill situation has closed all northbound lanes of I-75 between Bayshore Road and Tuckers Grade Monday.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol Troopers made a traffic stop on a commercial vehicle, box truck, for a roadside inspection on southbound I-75 at mile marker 153.

During the traffic stop, troopers smelled an odor coming from the truck and saw a substance leaking from the rear door. The truck was transporting over 15,000 pounds of a resin solution (placard number 1866) which is highly flammable.

The carrier transporting the material was Insituform Technologies LLC out of Chesterfield, Montana.

For public safety, the southbound lanes of I-75 at Tuckers Grade (mile marker 158) and the northbound lanes of I-75 at Bayshore Road (mile marker 143) were closed so emergency crews could assess the hazmat situation.

The southbound I-75 lanes at Tuckers Grade were re-opened at 1:30 pm while the northbound lanes of I75 remained closed until 9:55 pm, due to the load containers having to be inspected and offloaded onto a second refrigeration truck.

The Florida Highway Patrol has cited the Carrier, Insituform Technologies LLC for a violation of 49 CFR Hazmat Regulations 177.834 General Requirements which states: “Packages secured in a motor vehicle. Any package containing any hazardous material, not permanently attached to a motor vehicle, must be secured against shifting, including relative motion between packages, within the vehicle on which it is being transported, under conditions normally incident to transportation. Packages having valves or other fittings must be loaded in a manner to minimize the likelihood of damage during transportation.”

As a result, the carrier was issued a $500 fine for the violation and the 2017 KW Truck was placed out of service until the out of service violation is fixed. There were no known injuries.