Truck overturns, closes highway

Frontiersman

Staff Report

HURRICANE GULCH — The Parks Highway was closed from Mile 171.5 to Mile 184.5 Monday following an accident that saw a tanker carrying refrigerated methane overturn on the highway.

Robert Adkins, 63, from the Palmer-Wasilla area, was driving the tanker truck when it overturned about 9 a.m. Monday just beyond the Hurricane Gulch Bridge and the Honolulu Creek wayside, the Mat-Su Borough reports. The location of the accident is about 80 miles north of Talkeetna.

Adkins was transported to the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center with minor injuries, a Borough news release says. Two wreckers were at the scene at about 7:30 p.m. and attempting to upright the tanker. As of press time, the highway was still closed.

Following the highway closure, emergency crews from the Mat-Su Borough were staged near the accident, along with the 103rd Civil Support Team, a hazardous materials team from Elmendorf and Fort Richardson, the Borough release says.

The tanker was carrying refrigerated methane, said Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele. His hazardous materials crew responded, as did a Fairbanks crew and one from the U.S. Army.

“It’s one that we’re concerned about any temperature fluctuations,” Steele said of the truck’s cargo. “If that truck starts heating you have the potential for explosion.”

The truck’s contents were not spilled and workers vented the tanker to avoid a more serious situation, Steele said.

“Because it’s venting properly, it’ll maintain a temperature that will reduce the risk of explosion,” acting Assistant Fire Chief for Central Mat-Su Ken Barkley says in the Borough’s release. Hazardous materials experts worked to figure out the safest way to offload the tanker’s methane before turning the trailer right side up.

Three trains on the Alaska Railroad tracks were allowed to pass by the accident with coordination from on-scene personnel, Borough officials said.