A look back a year after truck burst into flames on highway ramp

(Harrisburg) — Today marks one-year since a tractor trailer carrying thousands of gallons of fuel caught fire and heavily damaged the Interstate 81 ramp to Route 322 west in Susquehanna Township, Dauphin County.

The incident caused traffic headaches for thousands, but also forced PennDOT to spring into action.

The ramp is a critical part of the midstate’s highway system, and heavy equipment had to be brought in to get the structure stabilized.

“The fact that we stepped out of the box and we went directly to High Steel, those processes then ran parallel. Before we even had a successful contractor for the portion of the work that we bid out, High Steel was able to start on a fabrication,” saysPennDOT’s District Eight Executive Michael Keiser.

He says extraordinary measures were undertaken, but they have given him confidence for the future.

“We really completed a $13 million project that wasn’t on our plate at all on May 8th and other than the painting, and we had everything done by Christmastime. That does beg a question, when the situation arises, there’s some things that we can do, and yeah, we think about that a lot.”

The entire project isn’t complete yet; the new steel beams still need to be painted.That work is expected to wrap up by July.

The driver of the tractor trailer, Thomas Uecker of Dover, York County, is facing charges of driving at an unsafe speed, causing an accident, and failure to stay in road lanes.

In total, he could face fines of up to $5,000.

Fixing the ramp cost about $12 million, with the federal government footing nearly the entire bill.