Authorities were able to open part of Route 8 northbound in Thomaston Tuesday, but the cleanup is far from over.
The left-hand lane of Route 8 North re-opened around 12 p.m., allowing traffic to pass for the first time in more than 24 hours. A tanker truck rolled over early Monday morning and spilled thousands of gallons of gasoline.
A Bridgeport man was driving a truck towing a gasoline tanker containing 8,800 gallons of fuel northbound on Route 8 at 4:45 a.m. when the tanker went off the right shoulder of the road on the Thomaston/Litchfield line, hit a guardrail and went down the embankment, police said.
Original reports said hundreds of gallons of gasoline spilled, but state police determined that 5,000 gallons have spilled, contaminating the surrounding soil in an area near the Naugatuck River.
The process to remove the contaminated soil from the site will continue into Wednesday.
