U.S. Route 35 in Putnam County reopened at just before six o’clock Saturday morning nearly 20 hours since it was forced to close following a truck wreck near the Buffalo Bridge.
Clean-up crews and the state Division of Highways finished their work after being slowed by heavy rain in the area.
The wreck occurred at around 10 o’clock Friday morning when a truck driver lost control of the large truck in a curve near the bridge. The truck was hauling 80, 50-gallon drums of glutaraldehyde. The chemical is a part of the formaldehyde family and is used in the sterilization of medical instruments and in some cosmetics.
The truck had just left a distribution point in Nitro and was heading to Columbus, OH when the crash happened. The chemical on board was made at Dow’s UCC West Virginia Operations site in South Charleston.
A Haz-Mat crew was dispatched to the scene to clean up the spilled chemical and a diesel spill. A tow truck crew had to get the truck upright and then the chemical containers had to be transferred to another vehicle.
Initially, residents of five nearby homes were evacuated as crews assessed the situation and traffic backed up for miles on one of the areas busiest highways.
Route 62 served as the main alternate route around the accident scene.