A Friday afternoon accident involving an 18-wheeler had severalmiles of Interstate 55 in Lincoln County closed until earlySaturday, according to Mississippi Highway Patrol officials.

MHP Public Affairs Officer SSgt. Rusty Boyd said the accidentoccurred on Friday at 3:26 p.m. when an SUV and an 18-wheelercollided at a construction zone in the northbound lane of theinterstate at mile marker 25.

“They collided right where the interstate was supposed to go into aone-lane because of the construction,” said Boyd.

Boyd said the collision resulted in no major injuries but causedseveral hours of headaches for interstate travelers.

“We had to divert people off the interstate onto Highway 51 frommile marker 24 to mile marker 30 at Bogue Chitto,” Boyd said.

Boyd said the reason for the hours-long closure was the cargo the18-wheeler was carrying.

“It was some type of plastic, but I’m not real sure what it was,”he said.

The collision also resulted in a minor accident in the southboundlane, probably because of traffic congestion or curious on-lookers,said Boyd.

The interstate was reopened early Saturday and things are now backto normal, he said. “We reopened it around noon Saturday.”