M54 lorry fire: Damaged stretch repaired as road reopens after extensive work
A stretch of the M54 damaged in a lorry fire on Tuesday is now open after it was closed for more than 12 hours.
National Highways has said the carriageway was so badly damaged it needs to be resurfaced to make sure it is safe to drive on.
The stretch affected was the westbound carriageway, from Junction 3 for Cosford and Tong, to Junction 4 for Shifnal. Some motorists were stuck in traffic for more than four hours.
The road was closed from just before 8.30am on Tuesday when a lorry caught fire. Bosses confirmed at 11.30pm that the road had reopened.
A spokesman said: "Emergency resurfacing works is complete and the M54 is now OPEN west J3 (#Cosford) - J4 (#Shifnal) following an earlier lorry fire, which resulted in a substantial diesel spillage. There are no residual delays in the area."
National Highways said the lorry was "severely damaged" and its almost full tank of diesel ruptured, spilling across both lanes, damaging the surface and making it unsafe to drive on.
The organisation's emergency response teams have treated the carriageway using absorbent granules and a high pressure cleaning method called hydro-blasting, which enabled lane two to be temporarily reopened to release trapped traffic, which had been waiting for more than three hours.
