Northbound I-55 was shut down for about eight hours this morning after a tractor-trailer overturned near mile marker 171 south of Festus.
At about 3 a.m., a tractor-trailer ran off the interstate, struck a guard rail and overturned, said Cpl. Juston Wheetley of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
No one was injured.
One of the tractor-trailer’s fuel tanks ruptured and the interstate was shut down so fuel that spilled could be cleaned up and tires the truck was hauling could be removed, Wheetley said.
Traffic was rerouted to Hwy. 61, and motorists could re-enter I-55 about 4 miles north from there.
The interstate was re-opened to traffic at about 11:30 a.m., he said.
The driver was a 50-year-old Iowa man, and the accident is being attributed to “inattention,” Wheetley said.