The E313 motorway will be completely closed off in both directions at Geel-Oost until the evening rush due to an accident with a leaking LPG gas truck on Wednesday morning, according to the Flemish Traffic Centre.
A specialised team is emptying the rest of the truck. "We are in the preparation phase, which takes about an hour. We are preparing a pump truck to transfer the contents of the crashed truck into, which will take about three hours, and then we have to empty that one, which will take about another hour," said Koen Bollen from the Kempen fire service. "Only then, the hoisting of the crashed truck can begin. In total, it will be about another seven hours before the E313 can be reopened," he added.
The gas truck was damaged on Wednesday night around 1:00 AM in a collision with three other trucks, at the tail end of a traffic jam due to trees on the road as a result of Tuesday's storm.
The area within a radius of 500 metres around the accident, a residential and an industrial area, was cleared so the gas truck can be emptied.
Traffic must leave the highway in both directions and follow a local detour. "However, the local roads are completely stuck as well," says Hajo Beeckman of the VRT traffic centre. "The situation is almost dramatic around Geel-West, so stay away from it," he added.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
