Paint spill coats major Montreal highway in white, closing road for hours-long cleanup

A heavy truck spilled a load of paint across Highway 40 on Tuesday morning, staining the road white and prompting a massive cleanup and traffic jam.

The truck dropped its load of paint in the eastbound lanes of the highway between Cavendish and Côte-Vertu Boulevards just after 8 a.m., a Transports Québec spokesperson said. 

Vehicles drove through the spilled paint, their white tire tracks coating much of the highway and obscuring lane markers for hundreds of metres, according to images of the scene.  

It was a massive spill, the Transports Québec spokesperson said, one that will keep the highway closed for five or six hours as cleanup crews do their work. 

A traffic jam extended more than a kilometre east of Côte-Vertu as of 10 a.m. The highway will remain closed between Côte-Vertu and Cavendish Boulevards until the cleanup is done, which may only be when the evening rush hour has already begun, according to Transports Québec.