BATON ROUGE - All lanes along I-12 West at Airline are now open after a truck lost its load and a nearly 4-hour long cleanup process brought traffic to a near standstill.  

The Wednesday morning incident occurred shortly before 5:30 a.m. as the driver of a'GEO Family Enterprise LLC' truck had to slam on his brakes due to another vehicle suddenly cutting in front of him. 

The truck was hauling a load of granite countertops, and as the driver slammed on his brakes the load fell from truck and shattered all over the roadway.

As a result of the incident, multiple lanes of traffic along I-12 West at Airline were blocked for hours while crews worked to clean up the debris. 

Crews still working and only one lane open on I-12-W @ Airline, its been a 3 hour operation so far. pic.twitter.com/nHw1dTpWyq

— Ashley Fruge' (@ashleywbrz) November 3, 2021

UPDATE- Crews finally working to clear out shattered countertops on I-12 W at Airline. Take 190 this morning! pic.twitter.com/tepN9PpreN

— Ashley Fruge' (@ashleywbrz) November 3, 2021

TRAFFIC ALERT- Truck spilled a load of stone countertops on I-12 West at Airline and shattered debris all over the roadway. Avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/TZxnDXjfhH

— Ashley Fruge' (@ashleywbrz) November 3, 2021

Fortunately, the incident did not result in any injuries. But it did cause severe congestion throughout the Baton Rouge area.

As the many drivers who normally traveled along I-12 West during their morning commutes resorted to using surface streets, traffic along streets such as Florida Boulevard and Old Hammond Highway became a bumper-to-bumper nightmare. 

For some, a morning commute that would normally take 20 minutes, took as long as two hours.

As of 9:30 a.m., I-12 West is clear and traffic is gradually thinning out.

For traffic advisories throughout the morning, watch WBRZ’s traffic reports on 2une In on WBRZ Plus from 5 a.m. until 9 a.m. and during the remainder of the day, traffic advisories are tweeted via @WBRZTraffic.