FOLLOWUP: Why the Roxbury spill took all day to clean up

(Photo courtesy Shirlee – cleanup trucks on Roxbury Monday)

As reported here yesterday, eastbound SW Roxbury was shut down between 8th and Olson for about eight hours on Monday after some kind of spill toward the end of the corridor. We followed up today to ask what they’d found out and why it took so long. Via SDOT, Seattle Public Utilities, and King County Road Services, here’s what we found out: The spill stretched across half a mile of the eastbound side of the street and was determined to be motor oil. The cleanup took so long because “of the extent of the spill, the number of drainage structures affected, precautions needed to work safely in the ROW, and the time it took for emergency cleaning contractors to arrive.” SDOT used “granular absorbents and sand,” subsequently removed by a sweeper truck, to clean the road, while SPU “coordinated emergency storm drain cleaning of 10 storm drain structures that were affected.” Investigators don’t know how it happened or who’s responsible.

4 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: Why the Roxbury spill took all day to clean up"

  • KT February 22, 2022 (5:00 pm)

    Kudos to the County and City for jumping right on this.  Government service at its finest.

  • rob February 22, 2022 (6:59 pm)

     if you have ever been to the drag raceses they clean the track with in an hour after a blown engine an oil everywhere 

    • DH February 23, 2022 (8:45 am)

      @ Rob. At the track they are all there waiting for it to happen. It’s also on a track not a street with drains to water systems we want to protect. 

  • Canton February 23, 2022 (10:16 am)

    I’m not buying the oil spill scenario. That was too long of a stretch of road. When I drove by they had a snowplow helping block the road eastbound at 8th. Guessing a similar situation to 9 yrs ago on the WSB when they pretreated it with too much deicer. 

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