Advice

[aroraborealis]

Do not, I repeat, do NOT get stuck in traffic behind a chemical spill. If you must get stuck in traffic behind a chemical spill, do not do it on 128. If you must do it on 128, do not do it on Friday afternoon. If you must do it on Friday afternoon, bring lots of good music and a cell phone with a headset. Prepare to catch up on gossip with any number of people. Expect to arrive at your destination quite late.

Comments

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Oy. So that's what happened. I had gone out to Southborough with a friend to pick up her daughter and we got caught in the backwash of that on the Pike. I called SmarTraveler on my cell phone to see if it could tell me anything, and it did mention a hazmat incident on Route 128 north of the Pike, but it didn't say exactly what. But traffic was fucked all along the Pike from Boston to I-495 for various reasons...the chemical spill on 128, a car fire on the Pike a mile or so inbound after the Weston tolls, and a boat that had fallen off its trailer (!) somewhere around 495. Oh yeah, 290 was fucked as well. It took us nearly 2 hours to get home from Southborough. Ugh.

[ceo]

Yup, I got caught in some of it too. The spill on 128 northbound had hosed things so severely that most of the interchanges south of there, including the Winter St/Totten Pond Rd one, were completely gridlocked. As it happened, I was trying to get on southbound to pick up Gosling at work, but from my work (behind the Westin Hotel), I have to turn left at a busy intersection, cross the highway and make a U-turn, through several lights. That took me at least half an hour. It looked like Totten Pond Rd, was backed up to that intersection all the way from Lexington St (half a mile away), from people trying to escape from the highway. If I'd been heading to Rte. 2 as I normally do, I would have gone out Winter St around the reservoir and up back roads in Lincoln.

Once I was on 128 southbound, everything was fine until I got to the Pike. Eastbound was backed up solid from the Allston-Brighton tolls clear through the Weston tolls. I passed that car fire shortly after it started; smoke was pouring out from under the hood and there was fmaming debris under the engine compartment. Everyone gave it at least two lanes of clearance getting by. A cop had just stopped in the westbound left lane when I got to it. I got off at Newton Corner and cut over to Charlesbank Rd, which conveniently turns into Soldiers Field Rd, because I knew that the Allston/Brighton tolls would be a howling clusterfuck.

Later, us along with Brandy and Albert went out to Framingham to see Harry Potter. The Pike eastbound was still backed up almost all the way to the first Framingham exit, but fortunately it had cleared out by the time we headed home (at 1 am).

[tikva.livejournal.com]

Yup, Katy and I were stuck in that traffic jam too. Whee!