CHARLOTTE — Several crashes, including one that involved a truck spilling its asphalt load, shut down the inner loop of Interstate-485 in south Charlotte for several hours Friday morning.
The wrecks happened just before 6 a.m. in the inner loop lanes near Johnston Road, in the Ballantyne area.
The Highway Patrol said five vehicles were involved in the three separate crashes.
ALERT: Multiple crashes along IL I-485 had the interstate CLOSED but a lane is slowly trickling through. A truck carrying asphalt has lost part of its load and is also in the right lanes. @MecklenburgEMS says they are still assessing any transports. #clt #clttraffic #cltraffic pic.twitter.com/gfpYQh2niw
— Traffic Team 9 (@TrafficTeam9) November 6, 2020
Paramedics said one person was taken to the hospital with serious injuries but it was still unclear which vehicle that person was in.
State troopers have not said what caused the crashes, but at one point one car caught on fire.
*TRAFFIC ALERT*
— NCDOT Charlotte Area (@NCDOT_Charlotte) November 6, 2020
I-485 Inner is closed near exit 61A (Johnston Road) due to a crash. Drivers can take the Rea Road or Providence Road exits as an alternate route. Follow https://t.co/BgRvUwatyd for updates. pic.twitter.com/fBz4ooLZcy
By 6:45 a.m., troopers had blocked all lanes and diverted traffic off the inner loop in order to clean up and clear the crash scenes.
Even after the crash had cleared crews brought out construction equipment to remove the asphalt from the roadway as well as pour a solvent onto a fluid spill that occurred due to the crash.
Channel 9 reporter Gina Esposito watched as crews worked to clean up the spilled asphalt, and heavy equipment was brought in as the vehicles involved were towed away.
Officials were able to reopen all lanes just after 9 a.m.
Check back with wsoctv.com for updates on this story.
Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
