Toppled truck ties up onramp traffic

It wasn’t the icy conditions but rather a heavy load that got away from him Thursday morning that caused a truck driver to lose control of his rig, which overturned and blocked a northbound Interstate 5 onramp off Randy Papé Beltline for more than five hours.

The Oregon State Police typically deal with two or three overturned trucks a year on the northbound loop off the eastbound Beltline, Lt. Rob Edwards said.

“Usually, they’re going too fast, but in this case his load just shifted,” Edwards said. “When you’ve got that kind of weight, especially when going around a corner, it’s easy to lose it.”

The driver of the 2003 Freightliner truck, 47-year-old David Geck of Salem, was carrying about 60,000 to 70,000 pounds of steel lumber racks on his trailer when the crash happened about 9 a.m., Edwards said. Traffic was able to squeeze by the overturned truck, but the onramp was closed later in the morning as the spilled cargo was cleaned up and the truck righted.

Geck was treated for minor injuries at the scene.

The onramp was reopened about 2:30 p.m., state Department of Transportation spokesman Rick Little said. About 50 to 70 gallons of diesel fuel from the truck spilled onto the road, he said. Northwest Hazmat responded and contained the truck’s leak.

About 5,700 cars use the onramp daily, Little said.

“So, if it’s closed for three or four hours, that’s a significant detour,” he said.

Traffic was rerouted south on Gateway Street and Pioneer Parkway, and then west on Interstate 105 back to I-5, Little said.

“It’s an unfortunate detour, but it’s the only one we can use in a case like this,” he said.

The I-5/Beltline interchange is in the process of undergoing $200 million in improvements over several years that are designed to accommodate an increase in the number of vehicles using it and also make it safer. The northbound I-5 loop off eastbound Beltline is one of the last pieces that will be completed, no sooner than 2014, Little said.

The design calls for eastbound Beltline traffic to split off Beltline on the west side of the freeway, cross it on a new bridge, then take what will be a newly constructed loop to northbound I-5.