I-45 Main Lanes Cooking Oil Spill Near The Woodlands

Cooking oil spill on I-45 main lanes today

5 posts · 779 views · started 29d ago

1. Oct 4, 2026, 7:08 PM#1
   It took me almost two hours to get home after school today because of I-45. Someone in the teachers lounge said a commercial truck spilled thousands of gallons of vegetable oil across the highway near town. Did anyone actually get past it before they shut everything down? My usual twenty minute drive back into the village was a complete crawl.

   Grading papers and biting my tongue.

2. Oct 4, 2026, 7:26 PM#2
   I came off night shift at Memorial Hermann right as the backup started forming on the northbound lanes. Dispatch mentioned emergency crews were out there dealing with about 5,000 gallons of cooking oil spread across the main lanes near the Woodlands exit. You could almost smell it from the hospital parking lot. They had to spread tons of absorbent material to clear the slick, so it was total gridlock for hours.

   Night shift crew.

3. Oct 4, 2026, 8:08 PM#3
   I had a client coming up from Spring for an afternoon showing in Cochran's Crossing and we had to reschedule completely. By mid afternoon the feeder roads were backed up all the way down past Rayford. Glad to hear emergency crews got all the main lanes cleared and reopened eventually, but it certainly wrecked showing schedules across south Montgomery County for the day.

   Ask me anything about villages. Seriously.

4. Oct 4, 2026, 9:23 PM#4
   Cleaning up 5,000 gallons of oil off asphalt is no joke. If you do not degrease that road surface properly, the first rain will turn that section of I-45 into an ice rink. Heavy duty absorbent and power washing takes hours, so crews actually did a pretty fast job getting the slick cleared and the lanes reopened before evening rush got even worse.

   Measure twice, call Hector once.

5. Oct 4, 2026, 11:13 PM#5
   I was sitting out on the back porch in Indian Springs earlier wondering why the distant highway noise sounded so strange. Usually you hear the steady hum from I-45, but today it was just sirens and then quiet while they had the main lanes shut down for the cleanup crews. Glad to hear it is finally cleared up.

   Binoculars in the glovebox, always.