Updated.
A snowy owl that somehow got into the O'Neill Tunnel fared little better than Larry the Turkey: Mass. Environmental Police report the bird was scooped up near the Government Center exit yesterday and rushed to the Tufts wildlife clinic in Grafton for treatment. The Globe reports the bird died.
Smoke from the fire rising. Photo by David Callahan.
State Police reported around 1:45 p.m. they shut the highway to let Boston firefighters quench the fire, which was on the southbound side where the O'Neill opens back up into open sky.
Traffic on I-93 northbound through the O'Neill Tunnel was backed way the hell up this morning due to a truck losing a load of gravel, according to State Police, who reported at 11:05 a.m. that all the lanes were re-opened.
Katherine Bragg is among the drivers not going anywhere on I-93 north due to a truck turned sideways in the tunnel.
Parking Lot: A Still Life by Sonja Alves.
A crash just inside the entrance to the O'Neill Tunnel means nobody from the south is going anywhere fast this morning.
Hotel billowing in the clear blue sky. Photo by Nat Tarbox.
UPDATE: Traffic is now blocked all over for miles.
Firefighters are in the O'Neill Tunnel battling a fire in a garbage truck that is sending smoke up through the ventilation shaft the InterContinental Hotel is built around. The hotel itself is not on fire.
Alex Carlson came across this truck jammed tight into the O'Neill Tunnel southbound, just past the turnpike exit, around 10:30 p.m.
Not sure how he managed to get as far as he did!
After seeing a report on Boston Reddit from a motorist who said something fell and almost hit her car, maintenance crews went through the tunnel twice yesterday looking for evidence of something falling from the ceiling, a MassDOT spokesman says:
UPDATE: State officials say they couldn't find any evidence of anything falling from the ceiling.
Am_Sci reports:
I was driving southbound through the O'Neill tunnel earlier this afternoon, when a long, rectangular, and apparently heavy object fell from the ceiling into the lane in front of me. It was accompanied by a plume of dust that quickly cleared.
State Police report four separate crashes involving 19 cars made the morning commute into the city messy. One person was injured enough to be taken away in an ambulance.
Updated with final tally from State Police.
A fire near Exit 23 around 12:45 p.m. led to the complete closure of the northbound side of I-93. State Police report one lane was re-opened around 1:15.
State Police have released this video of an out-of-control car nearly plowing into Trooper Jay Clement, sitting in a cruiser inside an O'Neill Tunnel work zone:
Trooper Clement noticed this vehicle at the last moment. Miraculously the operator of the small black car turned at the last moment, missing Trooper Clement, by only inches. The small black car was sliding out of control when he passes Trooper Clement. Subsequently, Trooper Clement stopped the motor vehicle. The operator was not impaired.
A box truck being carried on a flatbed truck hit the ceiling of the O'Neill Tunnel southbound around 9:30 a.m., causing some damage to wired in the ceiling, State Police report. The trucks were out of there and the damaged wires removed. Traffic impact was minimal, State Police say.
About an hour later, Mike Moura reports, a truck got stuck in a more traditional spot on Storrow Drive eastbound, just before the BU Bridge.
A man who drove his pickup the wrong way on the northbound side of I-93 just before the O'Neill Tunnel died earlier this morning when he crashed into an SUV coming the right way and he was thrown from his vehicle, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Idefonso Barros, 58, of Roxbury, was taken to Tufts Medical Center, where he died, the DA's office reports.
Channel 4 reports how two Transit Police officers, on their way to serve a warrant, helped get a father and his young daughter out.
Stop feeding them after midnight, dammit!
Roving UHub photographer Swirlygrrl captured the stop (and go) light at the end of an O'Neil Tunnel ramp this morning.
But not because it was held up with rusty paper clips but because a car on the top level of a car carrier knocked into a bunch of light fixtures, the Globe reports. And isn't it nice to see that Big Dig designers paid homage to Storrow Drive by designing a tunnel with height restrictions?
After one of the 110-lb. fixtures plunged to the roadway last month, the Herald reports.
Trailer for Mel Gibson's "Edge of Darkness," which features follows a man as he drives home to Roslindale in a typical afternoon commute through the O'Neill Tunnel (via Sam Baltrusis):
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