CAPE TOWN - The N3 near Montrose was re-opened to traffic on Saturday evening after a cooking oil-carrying tanker overturned on the highway.
“All lanes are now open in the vicinity of Montrose after a mammoth two-day clean-up operation, following a cooking oil spill which occurred in the early hours of Friday morning,” N3 Toll Concession operations manager Thania Dhoogra said.
“N3TC appreciates the efforts of road incident management services and clean up crews who have worked round-the-clock on this complicated operation, and all road users who have exercised patience and caution during this time.”
On Friday morning, just before midday, a cooking oil-carrying tanker overturned on the highway.
At the time, Dhoogra said clean-up operations were expected to continue throughout the night.
“Emergency teams, working at the scene, have now managed to partially open the southbound lanes. Heavy motor vehicles that have been stacked on the N3 are now being released in controlled batches to continue their passage,” she said on Friday.
Dhoogra said once the backlog of traffic has been cleared, traffic will contraflow on the southbound carriageway, one lane per direction, until the clean-up is complete.
It is alleged that the truck crashed into a barrier and overturned, causing a tear in the container. The leaked cooking oil quickly spread over a five-kilometre distance in both directions.
Road incident management services, including clean-up and recovery crews, rushed to the scene to decant the remaining cooking oil from the carrier in order for the cleaning of the road surface to continue.
IOL