U.S. Route 322 from Boalsburg to Potters Mills reopens after crash causes hourslong closure

U.S. Route 322 between Boalsburg and Potters Mills reopened at about 3:25 p.m. Thursday, after a vehicle crash early in the morning caused it to shut down.

According to dispatch reports, the crash in the 2400 block of Boal Avenue involved a tractor-trailer with a diesel fuel leak.

“A small box culvert was also impacted, so our bridge staff had to inspect the structure. It was cleared for traffic,” Marla Fannin, press officer for PennDOT’s District 2, wrote in an email. “About 70 feet of guide rail was also impacted.”

Van Winter, chief of Boalsburg Fire Company, said there were no injuries reported in the crash, which was caused by the driver veering off of the roadway.

“The tractor-trailer drove off the roadway into the guardrails, hit a bridge and then jackknifed on the roadway,” Winter said. “... which caused a fuel leak to both fuel tanks.”

It involved more than 200 gallons of fuel, Fannin wrote. Winter said to contain the fuel, those on the scene had to dam to roadway at numerous locations to stop the runoff. They used Oil-Dri, booms (physical barriers that slow the spread of oil and keep it contained, according to NOAA), and absorbent pads.

“We ran out of material, we used dirt until we got additional materials and additional resource,” Winter said.

The fuel did get off of the edge of the roadway, he said, but didn’t reach a stream, which was about 75 feet away.

“We put down probably close to ... about 1,700 to 1,800 pounds of Oil-Dri on the roadway, ... and numerous booms, probably 75 to 80 booms and probably 300 absorbent pads to control it, to start to stop from going off the roadway and get to the streams,” Winter said. Then Bigler Boys, a cleanup crew from Clearfield and Harris Township, helped with cleanup.

There was a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection representative on the scene, Winter said, who worked with the cleanup crew and was monitoring the area.

The DEP in an email Friday confirmed a member of its Environmental Cleanup and Brownfields Program visited the crash site on Thursday.

“Additional excavation of impacted soils is anticipated to occur in coordination with other site cleanup/safety work,” Megan Lehman, community relations coordinator for DEP’s northcentral regional office.

“Enforcement action for the trucking company is pending. The company will be required to complete necessary cleanup activities. DEP will continue to follow up on their remediation efforts,” she wrote.

Numerous fire companies and first responders were called to the scene starting at about 5:20 a.m., including the Boalsburg, Gregg Township, Pleasant Gap, Centre Hall, Bellefonte and Alpha fire companies. Penn State Haz-Mat was also called.

Motorists used the orange detour through Centre Hall using state routes 144 and 45 while U.S. Route 322 was shut down for the majority of the day.

This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 6:42 AM.