A portion of Route 173 was shut down for hours Monday near Antioch after a semi-truck spilled sheets of stone all over the roadway, police said.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded around 4:30 p.m. Monday to a call of a truck that spilled its load on Route 173 east of Route 45 in unincorporated Antioch.
Sheriff’s deputies arrived and spoke to the 47-year-old truck driver, who is a Rockford resident.
The driver of the truck, which was a flatbed, was hauling several very large sheets of stone, according to Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli.
Westbound Route 173 traffic in front of the truck had braked quickly, Covelli said.
The truck driver also braked quickly and then swerved to avoid being involved in a crash.
It caused the large pieces of stone to break the retention straps, which were holding them down.
The stone then fell onto the roadway, creating an impassable area, Covelli said.
The roadway was closed for approximately six hours while a cleanup crew removed the stone from the roadway.
No citations have been issued but Covelli said they could still be issued.