Gwinnett, Gateway85 CID begin engineering Beaver Ruin interchange

October 5, 2022 Gwinnett County: The morning commute out of the northeastern suburbs was brought to a standstill Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022 after a multivehicle wreck spilled diesel fuel on the southbound lanes of I-85. The wreck, which involved two tractor-trailers and two other vehicles, shut down the lanes before Beaver Ruin Road at about 5:45 a.m. and was not cleared until nearly three hours later. Motorists were stuck in the backups for miles stretching back to Ga. 316. No one was injured, according to Gwinnett County police spokesperson Officer Hideshi Valle. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The fuel spill was to blame for the lengthy closure, Valle said. Until police opened a high-occupancy toll lane at 8 a.m., southbound I-85 was a parking lot. For much of the morning, one big rig with significant front-end damage was sitting horizontal across the travel lanes after crashing into a median wall. The shutdown impacted “pretty much everybody in Gwinnett County north of Norcross,” WSB 24-hour Traffic Center reporter Mike Shields said. Even after the lanes reopened at 8:35 a.m., delays remained on I-85 for the rest of the morning drive. (John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com)