A Wednesday morning crash involving a tractor trailer carrying natural gas has closed a stretch of Interstate 295 “for the foreseeable future,” Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss said Wednesday evening.
The truck jackknifed on the northbound side of the highway in Yarmouth at about 9:05 a.m. after the driver reported hitting a patch of snow and losing control.
Northbound traffic is being diverted at Exit 17. Southbound lanes remain open.
Moss blamed “unforeseen circumstances and the highly sensitive nature of the truck’s hazardous load” for the continued closure. She said, “reinforcements in the form of heavy recovery equipment” are on their way, and “Xpress Natural Gas LLC has engineers and employees on scene aiding in the recovery of the trailer.”
State police and emergency workers had hoped to reopen the closed stretch of interstate by 9 p.m., but cleanup took longer. At 9:48 p.m. Moss said they are “cautiously optimistic” to reopen by midnight, “but again that time is subject to change.”
