Traffic moving normally after overturned oil truck closes I-95 North in Groton

Groton - One lane of Interstate 95 northbound is open between exits 88 and 89 as fire, police and medical personnel clean up the wreck of an overturned oil tanker near the Flanders Road overpass.

Police say traffic along Routes 1, 184 and 117 is moving slowly as cars avoid I-95 and detour onto city streets. Groton Town police officers are directing traffic at heavily congested intersections following the 3 p.m. crash.

All lanes are open at Exit 89, Groton Town police said, but Department of Transportation officials estimate it may take up to four hours before the highway completely reopens.

Almost 20 emergency responders, with lights flashing, are on scene.

The tanker is off the right side of the highway. Dwayne Gardner, a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) spokesman, said the tanker, which has a capacity of 2,400 gallons, has spilled an estimated 1,200 or 1,300 gallons of the home heating fuel it carried.

"The procedure is to offload the remaining oil to another truck, then to get the damaged truck up righted and taken away and then start the process of removing the soil that is contaminated," Gardner said of DEEP's role in the cleanup. Gardner said the truck would be up righted and removed this evening, but the removal of the contaminated soil would begin tomorrow.

Two other passenger sedans are off the left side of the highway and appear to have been involved in the wreck. The northbound and southbound sections of the highway are separated by a large wooded area.

Poquonnock Bridge and Old Mystic Fire Departments are on the scene as well as personnel from Groton Ambulance and Lawrence & Memorial Hospital Paramedics. State police are also on scene.