Re: I-75 closed N of Detroit

Gary V wrote:
A tanker tipped and burned on I-75 at Nine Mile Road, just north of
the Detroit city limits. I-75 is closed NB at 8 Mile, SB at I-696.
The 9 Mile bridge has collapsed onto the SB lanes in the fire. No
reports on injuries.


http://freep.com/article/20090716/NEWS05/907160605/No-deaths-in-I-75-blast-thanks-to-alert-truckers

I think the article slightly over-inflated the amounts of each product involved in the fire. Michigan-style fuel tankers are almost always built to a 13,400-gallon capacity, and I'm thinking 9,400 gallons of gas and 4,000 of diesel would make a lot more sense than the reported 9,600 and 4,600.

It was probably that split-product loading that caused the fire to be so huge as to destroy a bridge. Gasoline ignites much more easily, with a flash point of -45F vs. diesel's +141F, but it has lower energy content (less BTU/gal) than diesel. What that means is, a gas fire will burn quickly but release less heat, while a diesel fire -- though much harder to ignite -- will burn much hotter and longer.

This is likely what happened here. The gas probably caught fire almost
immediately upon rupture of the tank, and in so doing acted as an accelerant to ignite the diesel, which then caused the massive fire.

Any-who, the aftermath of this is that the Nine Mile Rd overpass over I-75 is history -- half of it incinerated, and the other half almost certain to require demolition -- and I-75 is closed until further notice between I-696 and Seven Mile Rd. Detours include Woodward, Dequindre, Mound, and possibly Van Dyke.

(cross-posted to Yahoo! greatlakesroads)

--
Larry Harvilla
e-mail: larry AT phatpage DOT org
http://www.phatpage.org/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larrysphatpage
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