MATTHEWS, N.C. — Police had to close a busy section of Independence Boulevard in Matthews for more than three hours early Wednesday morning after a truck spilled wet concrete in the road.
IMAGES: Scene of concrete spill on Independence Blvd.
Officers had closed inbound Independence Blvd. just before 5 a.m. at Windsor Square Drive while crews worked to clean up the concrete.
Firefighters blasted the highway with water in an effort to remove the concrete and officials had to call for a snow plow truck to help as well.
Authorities told Channel 9 that the truck which spilled the concrete did not stay at the scene and they do not know who was responsible for the spill.
On Thursday, Matthews police said they had issued a citation to Robert Lee Barrett, an employee of Blue Dot Ready Mix Concrete out of Harrisburg for failure to secure load.
Officers said he was responsible for spilling the concrete.
Officials had about a quarter-mile stretch of the road closed and said roughly .25 inches of concrete had spilled across the highway.
Traffic was detoured onto Highway 51 during the clean up process and crews were able to reopen Highway 74 around 8:45 a.m.
Check back with wsoctv.com for updates on this story.