Local News in San Francisco

(News info taken from San Francisco Gate www.sfgate.com)

Tanker fire destroys part of MacArthur Maze

2 freeways closed near Bay Bridge

Demian Bulwa and Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, April 29, 2007
Freeway Collapse

(04-29) 13:49 PDT - A huge ball of fire from an exploding gasoline tanker melted the steel frame of a highway overpass in the East Bay's MacArthur Maze early this morning, causing it to collapse onto the roadway below and virtually ensuring major traffic problems for weeks to come.
The elevated roadway that crumbled carried eastbound traffic from the Bay Bridge onto Interstates 580 and 980 and Highway 24. The broken concrete fell like a blanket over the roadway below, which connects southbound I-80 to I-880.
The single-vehicle crash occurred on the lower roadway when the tanker, loaded with 8,600 gallons of unleaded gasoline and heading from a refinery in Benicia to a gas station on Hegenberger Road in Oakland, hit a guardrail at 3:41 a.m.
Engineers said the green steel underbelly of the I-580 overpass and the bolts holding the roadway together began to melt and bend due to the intense heat -- and that movement pulled the roadbed off its supports.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Trent Cross said the driver of the tanker, James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, was traveling too fast in a 50 mph zone when his truck overturned and burst into flames. Mosqueda, who works for Sabek Transportation in San Francisco, exited the truck on his own after it overturned and hailed a taxi that took him to Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, witnesses and police said. He has been transferred to the burn unit at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, where he was reportedly in stable condition. Emergency workers said he suffered second-degree burns to his hands, arms and face. No one else was injured in the crash or fire, authorities said.

Witnesses described a tremendous explosion that engulfed two levels of freeway in a wall of fire before the whole thing collapsed on itself, spilling flaming gasoline down to the ground. Isaac Rodriguez, a 53-year-old sanitation supervisor who works the graveyard shift at East Bay Municipal Utility District's sewage treatment plant, said his supervisor called him about 3:45 a.m. and said to leave work because of a nearby explosion. Rodriguez went outside with a co-worker and saw the lower level of the freeway -- the I-880 connector about 50 feet above -- engulfed in fire with flames leaping to the deck of the top layer of the freeway, the I-580 connector.

"It was massive," Rodriguez said. "I saw movement and there was a man up there. I started talking to the guy. Are you the truck driver? "Yes." He said, "I'm burned. I got out as soon as I could.' ''

The driver seemed disoriented. "It looked at one time he was walking toward the truck again. I believe he was in shock,'' Rodriguez said. Rodriguez said he regretted not thinking to send a vehicle up to get the injured man. He and a co-worker stood for some 40 minutes watching the freeway burn. "It looked like a big slab of plastic because it was melted. It's made of steel and concrete, and it was bent at both angles of the pillar. It really looked fake. ... It was an event last night that I'm not going to forget for a long time," Rodriguez said. "It was incredible because it was a roar. No recognizable sign of the truck remains at the scene. One Caltrans worker there early this morning held up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart to describe how big the tanker is now. John Goodwin, a spokesman for the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the maze is one of the worst spots for traffic in the Bay Area.

"Westbound 80 is already the most congested route in the Bay Area, and it has been for many years," said Goodwin. "Also, the route coming off the Bay Bridge eastbound from Treasure Island is No. 10 on the regional congestion list, and with 580 gone, there will be a huge impact on that already congested route."

Goodwin anticipates that the impacts of the latest disaster will extend to roads far beyond the East Bay.

"This really strikes at the very center of the Bay Area freeway network," he said. "Areas with heavy congestion are presumably going to be even more congested, and then as folks find alternate routes, it will have a ripple effect on commute corridors all over the region. It will put more traffic on the San Mateo Bridge, the Golden Gate and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge."
Rodriguez said he has heard of other major crashes in the same area. On Feb. 5, 1995, a tanker truck loaded with liquefied gas crashed and burned on the MacArthur Maze, killing the driver, injuring 10 others and creating an all-day traffic jam.
The tanker, which was changing lanes when it skidded out of control, created a 100-foot-tall fireball after it crashed on the connector ramp between westbound Interstate 80 and eastbound Interstate 580, according to witnesses at the time.
Below the two stretches of roadway is a Caltrans property full of equipment being used to rebuild the Bay Bridge.
So far this morning, traffic on all the affected roadways remains light, but major backups are expected today and for the foreseeable future.
"We're screwed, huh? That's going to be rough on everybody," said Joe Dorey, 55, an engineer who lives in Oakland.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, in a press conference in San Diego Sunday, said that he has spoken to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about the crash aftermath -- and particularly how to accomplish repairs quickly. He said officials plan to "fast-track" the repairs using some of the same short cuts that got the I-10 rebulit quickly after the Northridge earthquake in 1994.

Traffic on the affected roadways remains light this afternoon, apparently because many drivers cancelled plans that would have required driving. But major backups are expected, especially tonight when the Golden State Warriors take on the Dallas Mavericks in the fourth game of their playoff series and Oakland's Oracle Arena. The Oakland A's are playing Tampa Bay at 1 p.m. at the coliseum next door.

The damaged I-580 connector is now a smoldering ruin, with the lanes draped like a blanket over the northeast edge of the I-880 connector and touching the ground below that.
Henry Geronimo, 44, of West Oakland watched the cleanup operation from a fence along Mandela Parkway.

"Coming home is going to be a big big problem," said Geronimo, who commutes to work in San Francisco as draftsman. "Do you know how many terrorists are looking at this? They're getting ideas."

Wanda Realegeno, a 42-year-old Richmond resident, said she isn't looking forward to her commute to school near Oakland Coliseum, which normally takes her onto the I-880 connector that the truck was on when it crashed.

"This is amazing," she said. "It's almost as bad as the earthquake. I'm just thinking: how am I going to get to work tomorrow? I was trying to figure out my path."

Chronicle staff writers Carolyn Jones, Michael Cabanatuan, Rick DelVecchio and John Wildermuth contributed to this report.