Mineta Transportation Institute Studies Risk Created by Highway-Borne Hazardous Materials

In April 2007, a petroleum tanker crashed and exploded on an Oakland, California, freeway interchange known locally as "The MacArthur Maze." The intense heat weakened and collapsed an overpass and closed a major access to the San Francisco Bay Bridge, causing severe commuter traffic constraints to and from the city. 

In response to this accident, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) asked the Mineta Transportation lnstitute's (MTI) National Transportation Security Center (NTSC) to quickly examine the possibility of terrorists purposely triggering a similar incident to cripple the state's transportation infrastructure.