Highway 126 expected to open at fuel spill site.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

NOTI - Traffic was expected to be allowed back on Highway 126 early this morning, three days after a fuel tanker crashed and spilled more than 6,000 gallons of gasoline.

The road was expected to open Wednesday night, but the pavement was not ready to handle traffic, a transportation department spokesman said.

While motorists will once again head to and from the coast, cleanup crews expect to remain at the scene just west of Noti for several more days, said Brian Fuller, a spokesman with the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Gasoline has been found floating in groundwater about 2 1/2 feet beneath the surface, Fuller said. Polluted groundwater has been located on private property as far as 60 feet south of the roadway, but none of the spillage appears to have reached area residents' wells or a nearby log pond, he said.

A "vacuum truck" is pumping out the contaminated water and hauling it away, Fuller said. DEQ may return in later weeks or months for long-term testing of the site, he said.

The highway's reopening was delayed so that crews could remove tons of contaminated asphalt and dirt, and then rebuild and repave about a 70-foot stretch of roadway, said Joe Harwood, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

The road was first expected to open Wednesday, but the new pavement had not cooled enough and was too soft to handle traffic, Harwood said. Temperatures at the site were in the mid-90s and water being sprayed on the asphalt to cool it quickly turned to steam. Workers also had to repave a section of road that became rutted when a construction truck drove over it. Officials then decided to keep the road closed to allow it to properly cool. Harwood said the road should open at 4 a.m. this morning.

Workers had to excavate to a depth of 6 feet to remove the contaminated asphalt and soil, Harwood said. Excavation work was done through the night Tuesday and wrapped up around 7 a.m. Wednesday, he said.

Reconstruction of the roadbed began mid-morning and paving commenced midafternoon, he said.

Motorists had been detoured onto Highway 36 and Poodle Creek Road, adding about 10 miles and 15 to 20 minutes' travel time to their schedules. About 5,200 vehicles travel that stretch of Highway 126 every day.

Police say the tanker truck crashed Monday afternoon when driver Juden Buzzard of Creswell drifted into the north shoulder, overcorrected and crashed in a ditch on the south side of the road.

The spilled fuel came from a tanker trailer that fell on its side in the middle of the highway. Buzzard, 35, was not injured.