A well-traveled Tempe street has been reopened to traffic following two incidents that forced its closure.
McClintock Road between Rio Salado Parkway and Apache Boulevard was closed for more than six hours due to a power outage and a leaking gas main. The barricades came down around 4 p.m.
City traffic statistics shows that stretch of McClintock is traveled by about 35,000 vehicles daily.
According to Tempe police spokesman Brandon Banks, the trouble began at 9:45 a.m. Within a five-minute span, construction workers at McClintock and Rio Salado accidentally cut a power line, which shut off traffic lights at that intersection, and a gas main ruptured less than a mile to the south, at McClintock and Don Carlos Avenue.
The proximity in time and location aided authorities in shutting down McClintock, Banks said, although it created serious traffic snarls.
