GIG HARBOR, Wash. — State Route 16 eastbound has reopened in Gig Harbor after a HAZMAT response closed the road for hours.
At around 12:45 a.m. Thursday morning, a DUI driver crashed into a construction zone on the highway. One of the trucks that the driver hit was carrying in instrument with a radioactive core.
The road was closed for seven hours, reopening just before 8 a.m. Backups stretched for miles as traffic was detoured onto Olympic Drive, then allowed to re-enter SR 16 at 24th Street, just before the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
No construction workers were hurt in the crash. The driver was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Crews were working on repaving one lane of the road. The radioactive instrument one of the trucks was carrying is used to measure th