(CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) OAKLAND A section of Oakland's busy MacArthur Maze that funnels traffic onto the Bay Bridge collapsed early Sunday morning after a speeding tanker truck hauling 8,600 gallons of gasoline hit a guardrail, overturned and exploded into flames, authorities said.

The tanker crash and ensuing fire occured about 3:45 a.m. along the interchange, which connects westbound lanes of Interstate 80 to southbound Interstate 880, about half a mile from the bridge's toll plaza.

Witnesses reported flames from the blaze reached up to 200 feet high. It took firefighters until about 5:50 a.m. to extinguish it, Oakland Fire Battlion Chief Mike Miller said.

Intense heat from the fire melted a second interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 located above the first interchange, causing a 250-yard section of the roadway to collapse onto the roadway below, according to the California Highway Patrol.

http://cbs5.com/topstorie...83701.html


I saw the pictures on the news this morning and all I could think of is the Loma Prieta Earthquake damage. The fire was so hot that it melted concrete and bent part of back like foil.

I have made that commute to work before and it was already a mess and now it will more of a mess.
Check out the video.

For information on getting around try

www.bart.org
www.caltrain.com
www.511.com

wow. i was just in that area yesterday!

LisasBrush said:

thanks for telling me.

WTF? I totally missed this.

BART is going to be a nightmare on Monday morning.

sosgemini said:

i totally thought u while i was there!

fast trip -- in Friday night, to El Cerrito with Cris & co, then working Media Awards all day yesterday. flew out at 9:20 this morning.

see u in Miami!!!

Stax said:

everybody i talked to was unaware of this happening...this sh*t is HUGE!!!! W/ Jerry on the transportation committee i can look foward to fifty million calls on Monday from folks demanding action...

they say it's going to talk a couple months to fix... trips to the city are going to be a b*tch.

I drive from SF to Oakland every Monday for college on that very stretch of highway. It was hard visualizing which part was affected until I saw the pics on Yahoo. I'm going to watch the local evening news for more aerial footage. Wow, it is going to be a mess over there for awhile. Like there isn't enough traffic in the East Bay into and out of SF. I'm going to leave extra early tomorrow afternoon and try to take 280 to 380 to 101, cross the San Mateo bridge and drive past Hayward into Oakland that way. I do not want to get caught up in that nightmare at all. Fortunately nobody was killed, especially on the time and day that it happened. It could have been much worse.

how rude...Yahoo replaced their bjork feature with a freeway collapse feature.

heres more pics:

http://news.yahoo.com/pho...gefire/p:6

Good Lawd!!!

I guess I wont be seeing some of my friends from Oakland tonight.

M

...now THAT'S a FIRE!

This is going to hurt. Big time.

Stax said:

There goes your commute dude!! I'm so sorry!


M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

ditto.

sosgemini said:

Where the hell have you been? You were missed on Tuesday.

M

No wonder my mother called me & woke me EARLY this morning w/ this shit Am I the only turd who can't figure out how much this effects me? Looking @ the maps I think I'm okay - I take the maze but not to SF right now... Everything will SUCK but I can take the streets... which will still suck

Damn, I just missed that shit too. I came in from SF @ about 3:15am so I was on the part that collapsed WHEW!


.
[Edited 4/29/07 18:26pm]

sosgemini said:

I usually BART to work, so it could be worse. Although I am guessing the trains will be crazy packed tomorrow.

I am more worried about nights and weekends. I guess I won't be hanging out in the city much after 12:30 AM until they get this thing fixed.

Has anyone heard how long it will be down?

Stax said:

They're saying weeks or months, but a state of emergency has been declared to enable repairs to happen faster

Stax said:

How awful.

CarrieMpls said:

It's gonna be an Oakland summer.

Stax said:

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

what happened on tuesday?

CalhounSq said:

poor dook is going to have it worst.

sosgemini said:

you are probably right.

Getting on BART's gonna be a bitch tomorrow. I commute from Richmond to Concord. It's usually pretty empty getting there, but getting home, it's gonna be TOO full

Stax said:

Oakland, Berkeley and San Fran are so damn fun in the summer.

bboy87 said:

I get on at Rockridge to go into SF. It's already SRO packed by the time it gets to me. Coming home is not as bad, but the seats are all taken. Tomorrow will be a nightmare.

Coming home, I get on the SF/Daly City and get off at MacArthur and get on the Richmond train. Those fools know that train has loads of people, yet they always have the 3 car trains! There's been times when it was pouring rain and you couldn't even get into the train

good luck with the traffic up there!

bboy87 said:

what is this rain of which you speak?