Pickup plunges onto Glenn Highway after sliding off Muldoon Road bridge

State transportation crews installed emergency fencing Monday after a pickup fell from the Muldoon Road overpass Sunday evening and landed upside down on the Glenn Highway.

The driver, who suffered injuries described as not life-threatening, was alone in the 2004 Ford pickup when he lost control on black ice, according to an Anchorage Police Department report provided Monday by spokeswoman Renee Oistad. Reports of the incident began coming in just after 7 p.m., police said.

The truck was northbound on the overpass when the driver hit ice, went through a rail and landed on the southbound lanes of the highway, according to the report.

Speed was not believed to have been a factor, police said. No other vehicles were involved, they said.

Traffic on the southbound Glenn was briefly diverted onto the Muldoon Road exit until the truck was towed.

Snow has piled up along roadways in Anchorage after a series of early season winter storms dumped just over 39 inches of total accumulation, making this the city’s snowiest November since at least 1953.

The same bridge was involved in another incident last week. On Thursday, a chunk of ice or snow reported to have fallen off the Muldoon overpass penetrated the windshield of a vehicle passing below the bridge on the Glenn Highway, injuring the driver.

On Monday, after hearing reports of the pickup that plunged off the overpass, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities employees marked the area with orange fencing “to alert drivers,” agency spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy said.

The Muldoon overpass sidewalk is part of the transportation department’s emergency snow haul contract, McCarthy said.

Crews are working to open sidewalks on Minnesota Drive now, before moving to Fireweed Lane and then the Seward Highway between 15th and 36th avenues, she said. “Those are high priority for pedestrian traffic. We have people in the road right now.”

The Muldoon section is also on the list for snow removal, McCarthy said.

“We’ll continue working with that haul contractor until things are cleared up,” she said.