Overturned truck spills hazardous materials on the 62nd Street Bridge

An overturned truck spilled hazardous materials onto the 62nd Street Bridge late Monday night and crews spent several hours working to contain the spill. 

The crash shut down the bridge and forced morning rush hour traffic to detour to other bridges. The bridge reopened to traffic in both directions shortly before 1:30 p.m., PennDOT said.  

The Cherry City Volunteer Fire Company said it was assisting on a "large scale hazmat incident" along with crews from Allegheny County Emergency Services and the city of Pittsburgh's Bureau of Fire.

A truck turned onto its side on the Sharpsburg side of the Senator Robert D. Fleming Bridge, also known as the 62nd Street Bridge, late Monday night and the fire company said crews were working to contain the leak.

An aerial view from the KDKA Drone Team around 3 a.m. Tuesday showed the large response from crews working at the scene of the crash. 

Allegheny County Emergency Services said the truck was carrying a mixed load, consisting primarily of lactic acid.

Around 4 a.m. Tuesday, the fire company said that all "hazardous materials have been mitigated," but the bridge is expected to remain closed for an extended period of time. It took extra time to turn the trailer upright after emptying it because a piece of equipment broke down, the Etna police chief said. 

Ferra's Automotive Services operations supervisor Eric Scavincky said this isn't the first time a crash like this has happened on the bridge.

"The bridge is synonymous with tractor-trailers rolling over on this thing," Scavincky said. "They will come up, they will hit that little ramp at the end of this and they just flop right over."

That's what the responding Sharpsburg police officer said happened in this case. The driver is OK. 

The cleanup resulted in a long day of work for crews, including Scavincky. 

"I started at 4 o'clock yesterday morning, got home, and then the phone rang, so back out again," Scavincky said.