Crews working at the site of a train derailment in southwestern Jefferson County plan to drain hazardous chemicals from the tankers on Tuesday.Beginning at 6 a.m., Dixie Highway from Highway 44 to the bridge at Salt River will be closed, and there will be a half-mile evacuation put into effect, and all residents of Katherine Station Road and Abbots Beach Road will also be evacuated. Air traffic won’t be allowed within half a mile of the site, and river traffic will be stopped.During the day, the crews will offload two chemicals: hydrogen fluoride and butadiene. Hydrogen fluoride is an extremely dangerous corrosive gas, which can cause severe burns if it comes into contact with human skin. Butadieneis flammable—an entire car spilled during the accident, and the remaining chemical exploded and caused a fire the week of the accident.In the two weeks since the derailment, much of the danger at the site has come from work to stabilize the cars. Now that they’re stabilized, the offloading of the hydrogen fluoride and butadiene is expected to be routine, but MetroSafe is still taking safeguards.Only one car of butadiene and one of hydrogen fluoride will be offloaded tomorrow. Beginning Wednesday, crews will do work on the remaining butadiene, hydrogen fluoride and sodium hydroxide cars. The evacuation, air and water traffic restrictions will remain in place until all of the work is done.From MetroSafe:
Work to Resume Tuesday to Drain Chemicals at Derailment Site
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