Secrets of the City

Some extra:
Several other road closings were reported in the area reported just after 10:00 a.m.:

-394E to W94 is closed
-All exits to 394 in and out of downtown
-94W to 394W is closed
-94W to Hennepin/Lyndale is closed
-94E to Hennepin/Lyndale is closed
-Lowry Hill Tunnel

But weirdly, the MN DOT traffic map looks pretty clean right now. If I wasn’t stuck with a consultant from MS I’d probably head home early.

Oh, and as an homage to Jason, here’s the WCCO link.

Shit, guess I should have filled up before work…

I blame ethanol.

Holy shit!

It went into the sewer system!

Mn/DOT traffic cameras. Not much happening.

Those of us who live in the western burbs will be getting home exactly how?

Mn dot cameras. You’re expecting to see what, exactly?

Most of the gas is in the storm sewer system. If any of it makes it out, it’ll probably be at an outfall on the Mississippi very near where they’re building the new bridge.

Gas will be $3.50/gal by weekend.

Excellent, right on the day when I needed to leave early for an appointment in Uptown before the 53 starts running. Cant’ risk taking the 94, looks like the 21 for me.

*sigh*

Go through Yuptown and get on Highway 7…er wait…don’t do that, that’s the way I get home…

oh, never mind. It’s in the tunnel. I thought this concerned my commute. It doesn’t. Carry on.

… and at this rate, we can stop worrying about our fixing the highways, because most of them aren’t running, anyway.

Good day to be in Seattle. Have fun with that, Minneapolis!

Hey, could be worse, ya could be me – work in Golden Valley, live in DT St. Paul. Best if I start walking now.

Here is probably the easiest route to get on 394 from DT.

Dunwoody Blvd

I am out of the office! Sorry, I can’t take your call! I’ll get back to you in 2-3 weeks!

nice. it figures that it would be the one day I have to pick up both of my kids on the 394 corridor. I usually avoid 394, but unfortunately tonight so will everyone else. dangit.

this is why they need to get rid of that 90 degree turn around Dunwoody. Just plow that fucker under.

Seeing freeways completely empty is incredibly eerie, like something out of The Stand.

any word on whether the police are going to man that 4-way stop @ Glenwood & Wirth so that outbound traffic can flow smoothly? That stop sign is a friggin’ nightmare when traffic gets heavy.

Courtney says it smells like a gas station outside out apartment.

jpavleck, just me, but I’d think that by car, you have an easy one taking 100/169 to 94E to 694E to 35E.

Eastbound from downtown sounds like a breeze, though.

is she making a microwave burrito? maybe the coffee was left on all morning?

We do not drink coffee. Well, Kahlua. I guess that’s sort of close.

jeremy…
55 east to downtown (turns into 10th street)
10th into & through downtown MPLS and turn right on Portland…
go down Portland to 19th and turn right
Turn right on service drive to enter 94E.

It didn’t burst into flames? I blame the smoking ban…

How early does Lee’s open, and how many smokers stand outside of Lee’s to kill themselves?

Go too damn fast through an area with a sharp curve and a rollover is bound to happen. Even though gas tankers are fairly safe and have several separated and baffled tanks to avoid sloshing fuel and large spills you can still feel the load move around when you drive a tanker. Now I’m not crazy enough to drive a gas tanker, but I have friends that have. I myself have driven a smaller tank truck hauling water for a construction company many years ago. Gas or water (liquids) they all act the same. It’ll give your truck a real weird feeling when you go around curves or corners too fast. You can kind of feel like it’s going to lift right off the pavement on one side if your going just a little too fast. Like it’s almost ready to tip but doesn’t. It might have spilled some of it’s load, but with the safety features on the trucks it most likely would be small, not as large as what they first said.

I am starting to smell oil in the apartment.

Looks like I’m going to have to navigate my way around the Isles tonight to get home.

Damn.

Wow, thanks for the directions guys! It’ll be a long day today, so hopefully it’s clear by the time I take off, but if not I’ll happily try those routes out. Hell, maybe I’ll do it anyway!

Don’t blame ethanol, this time, aliecat. If that tanker had been carrying ethanol instead of regular unleaded, the risk to soil and water contamination would have been minimal.

Actually, we were lucky. Gasoline has a high flashpoint, and gas tankers DO sometimes explode in accidents. That’s why they don’t want them going through the Lowry Tunnel.

Had it been carrying ethanol, I would be outside, on my hands and knees, licking the ground around the tanker.

Max has the right idea. I’d build a temple across both lanes and decree the land to be holy.

Sadly, the ethanol producers by law must “denature” — aka poison — the fuel with a little gasoline before transportation to prevent people from doing just what you described.

I found this cautionary whale on this site:

Sacked alcoholic loses benefits after drinking ethanol

Cory Neddermeyer, 42, of Iowa, lost his unemployment benefits in a failed discrimination claim following his retrenchment from an ethanol plant after an almost fatal dose of automobile fuel.

The recovering alcoholic had a near death experience when he swallowed the 190-proof fluid on the sly while working at Amaizing Energy in Denison, Iowa. He was hospitalised with a ridiculously high blood alcohol reading of 0.72; 14.4 times the Australian driving limit and twice what is expected to kill the average adult.

Neddermeyer consumed the fuel when he found an unexpected spill had been caught in a holding pond at the plant. When asked why he succumbed to temptation, the maintenance technician had this to say:

“I am a recovering alcoholic, and I thought about the availability of this alcohol throughout the day.”

Eventually the surplus of free booze got the better of him.

“Curious about the taste and its effects, I dipped into this lake of liquor and drank what I considered to be two to three ounces, Neddermeyer wrote in an official statement. The next thing I remember is waking up in Crawford County Memorial Hospital.”

At the hearing, his boss, Jeff Bruck, was flabbergasted by his employees actions.

“This is a fuel alcohol,” the plant manager told the court. “This is an explosive product.”

The matter came to court when Neddermeyer entered a claim for unemployment benefits. He asserted that Amaizing Energy was jointly responsible for his intoxication because the spill had provided him with an opportunity to drink alcohol. That he was subsequently fired was, in his opinion, a case of discrimination against an employee obviously suffering from the disease of alcoholism.

I’m trusting my kidneys to act as a filter here.

If I was in town, I’d throw a COSTCO size jar of olives and a splash of Vermouth off the walking bridge.

I don’t know what the fuss is about. According to the Star Tribune, which I trust endlessly, traffic is just fine.

http://traffic.startribune.com/

I am out of the office! Sorry, I can’t take your call! I’ll get back to you in 2-3 weeks!
»» Submitted by Carol Molnau at 10:55 AM on January 9

LOL!

I’m trusting my kidneys to act as a filter here.

Okay. But remember, Mr. Neddermeyer said the same thing….

i can see this right out my window: 394 traffic is moving fine, 94 too. Ramps around it are still shut down though

spaceman, can you see if traffic is entering W 394? I am trying to figure out if I should take my usual express bus home, or hop the slowpoke 17 and avoid the freeway?

oops, little late here: at least from downtown people are getting on 394 West. 94W to 394 – no, it’s closed.

If anyone wonders, we have had ethanol spils in Minnesota before. Much less harmful to environment than gasoline spills.

any word on whether the police are going to man that 4-way stop @ Glenwood & Wirth so that outbound traffic can flow smoothly? That stop sign is a friggin’ nightmare when traffic gets heavy.

Amen, Grote. That’s the way I take home everyday. This is going to suck.

Amaizing Energy in Denison, Iowa

That just might be the lamest pun ever.

If anyone wonders, we have had ethanol spils in Minnesota before. Much less harmful to environment than gasoline spills.

Thanks, spaceman! Express bus it is.

Update:

Portions of Interstate 94, 394 and Highway 100 in Minneapolis that were closed earlier today are back open, but ramp access to those roads in the area of the spill is still limited. The State Patrol says the tanker overturned around 9:15 this morning as it tried to navigate the ramp from westbound I-94 at Hennepin Avenue to westbound I-394.

394 traffic looks fairly normal — good luck!

Seeing freeways completely empty is incredibly eerie, like something out of The Stand.

I was thinking the same thing yesterday when I saw the un-snowplowed lanes of 35W just south of the river.

For whatever reason, it reminded me of this website. I’m especially partial to the Georges AFB wanders this guy goes on. The images are somewhat unsettling and at the same time thought provoking.

I came home yesterday via 394 (shuttle bus) during rush hour and it didn’t seem any worse than normal. A bit emptier, actually!