Chemical leak closes a major bridge during a busy day of travel

A chemical leak blocked the Delaware Memorial Bridge back and forth on Sunday night, blocking traffic on one of the main arteries of the East Coast on one of the busiest days of traffic. # 39; year.

The leak comes from a chemical production facility located in Delaware, near the two suspension bridges located on a main road linking Washington and New York City, tweeted the Delaware River and the Bay Authority.

The bridge closed around 17 hours Sunday. The facility operators have asked that it be closed, tweeted the authority. There is no timetable for its reopening.

Traffic on both sides was diverted from the bridge to other crossings, including the Commodore Barry Bridge to the north, causing the dispersion of what the authorities termed "parking lot" on other clogged roads.

The bridge carries Interstate 295 over eight lanes over the broad south arm of the Delaware River, between northern Delaware and southern New Jersey. Traffic from the New Jersey Turnpike southbound also crosses it. More than 80,000 vehicles travel daily, according to the authorities.

The Delaware Department of Transportation said the chemical plant behind the closure was on the side of the bridge located in Delaware. The Natural Resources and Environmental Control Division of the state is on site at the time of the leak.

Lashrecse Aird, a member of Virginia's House of Delegates, was stuck in traffic on the deck as she was returning home to Virginia from New York. The Thanksgiving ride usually takes her six hours, but she was already on the road for so long and her GPS told her that she had more than three hours to go.

A police vehicle and a truck of hazardous materials were blocking the bridge when she approached. She was off for an hour before she was reoriented, she said.

"We ended up taking Route 295 North to Route 322, heading for Barry Bridge," she said. "And that will take us south, everyone comes in that direction, so we're still not moving."