The M1 has re-opened for motorists heading south after queues stretched to eight kilometres on Wednesday.
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Salvage crews finished more than eight hours work to retrieve a truck that crashed and burned near Palmers Road at Freemans Waterhole in the early hours of the morning.
At 11.30am authorities confirmed the highway had re-opened but traffic was backed up eight kilometres at the scene.
The complex salvage operation, which involves cleaning up a spill, is finished.
Bus routes 270, 275 and 276 travelling via Toronto and Dora Creek had been delayed while traffic congested on the RMS detour via Wangi Road.
Reader Judy Paroci said the detour would leave her stranded on back roads for more than an hour.
“I left the expressway at 7.30, I'm just past Rathmines turn-off but I took Wilton rd rather than going into Toronto,” she wrote.
“I will now be stuck between Toronto and Morisset for a good 1.5 hrs.”
Northbound lanes remained open throughout the southern gridlock.
Earlier:
A TRUCK has rolled and caught fire, closing the southbound lanes of the M1 on Wednesday morning.
The accident has shut the highway’s southbound lanes at Palmers Road through Freemans Waterhole.
Police said emergency services were called just before 2am after the semi-trailer failed to negotiate a left-hand bend.
The truck, which was carrying treated pine slabs, then caught fire.
The driver, 59, escaped with minor injuries to his chest.
He was taken to the John Hunter Hospital.
Motorists are urged to avoid the area, with the road forecast to stay shut “for sometime while the scene is cleared”.
At 9am the NSW Transport Management Centre said delays on the detour were “significant” due to the huge volume of traffic funneling off the freeway.
Bus routes 270, 275 and 276 travelling via Toronto and Dora Creek are also delayed up to 20 minutes.
Northbound lanes remain open.
Authorities are redirecting highway traffic off onto Palmers Road, along Cessnock Road to Wangi Road through Toronto.
Emergency services have been working to extinguish the fire and will remove the heavy vehicle from the roadway.