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Overnight crash involving semi causes oil spill, shuts down portion of I-696

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DETROIT (WXYZ) — A crash involving a semi-truck shut down a stretch of I-696, just east of Dequindre, overnight. Clean-up crews worked to clear the roadway of 100 gallons of fuel.

Michigan State Police tells us they've received no reports of injuries from this crash.

The westbound lanes opened back up just before 5 a.m., but were previously closed for seven hours.

The crash happened just before 10 p.m., with MDOT workers working through the night, dumping sand and aggregate on these westbound lanes repeatedly, even dumping it straight form the bag.

VIDEO: Overnight crash involving semi causes oil spill, shuts down portion of I-696

VIDEO: Overnight crash involving semi causes oil spill, shuts down portion of I-696

The crash and the cars passing by spread diesel fuel all over this highway, about an eighth to a quarter-mile stretch.

Bill Byer, who owns one of the cleanup companies, talked with us about this effort.

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"The problem was because of the rain and the water on the road," Byer said. "We put it down and it sucked the water up and the fuel and everything else. It just gives the cars more traction...there's 50 bags (of sand and aggregate) per pallet, I know of at least 12 pallets that we used."

That is a lot of materials. You could see remnants of that sand and aggregate when you look at the lights, it looked like a heavy fog about an hour ago.

They also had vacuum five manholes to keep the diesel fuel from getting into the water.