Hydraulic fluid spill interrupts morning commutes

A streak of hydraulic fluid beginning near the Princess Margaret Bridge’s on-ramp was the culprit of traffic delays Friday morning. The Fredericton Fire Department posted to social media at 8:45 a.m. saying their crews were working at the scene on Riverside Drive (Route 105), acknowledging traffic impacts. The city’s fire and EMO spokesperson Justin McGuigan [...]

Article content A streak of hydraulic fluid beginning near the Princess Margaret Bridge’s on-ramp was the culprit of traffic delays Friday morning. The Fredericton Fire Department posted to social media at 8:45 a.m. saying their crews were working at the scene on Riverside Drive (Route 105), acknowledging traffic impacts. The city’s fire and EMO spokesperson Justin McGuigan said in an email they first got the call at 8:17 a.m., identified the substance and applied spill absorbent to “control and collect the product.”

The fire department’s work at the scene was all done by 9:45 a.m., he added. At around 10:30 a.m., however, the scene wasn’t cleared although firefighters were no longer at the site. Maritime Environmental crews were conducting cleanup and one lane remained open.

Workers had covered the affected areas with a white powder and some were sweeping. The road was blocked off roughly from the Irving gas station to Ross Terrace Lane, just past Greener Village Food Bank. Traffic coming from Maugerville was backed up as far as the eye could see from the spill area, however traffic on the bridge and northside Fredericton was as usual.

The Fredericton Police Force, Department of Environment and Local Government (ELG) and Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI) were also on scene, he said, redirecting comment to those agencies. Brunswick News is awaiting a response from ELG to question’s about the spill’s contents, associated risk, and how it happened.