Hydraulic Spill Causes Police Cordon, Road Closures along Mt. Auburn Street

The Cambridge Police and Fire Departments were hard at work Wednesday afternoon to respond to a reported hydraulic leak in Harvard Square that began shortly after 3 p.m.

“A hydraulic fluid line burst from a street sweeper truck this afternoon at approximately 3:15 p.m. in the area of Mount Auburn Street and Dunster Street,” CPD spokesperson Jeremy Warnick wrote in an emailed statement to The Crimson.

As police and fire trucks patrolled the area outside the newly renovated Smith Campus Center, a street sweeper was seen traveling westbound on Mt. Auburn St, where rows of traffic cones blocked off the area.

“Due to a hydraulic spill involving a street sweeper in the area of Mt. Auburn St., please note there is a partial closure (one lane) on Mt. Auburn between JFK & Holyoke Sts, as well as #HarvardSquare feeder streets. Expect brief delays in the area,” the Cambridge Police Department tweeted Wednesday evening along with a map of the affected area.

According to Warnick, Cambridge residents can expect the police cordon to extend into Thursday morning until the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection clears the affected region.

“Officers will be on-scene for traffic control until the roadways are able to be fully reopened and the area is cleared by Mass DEP,” Warnick wrote. “This may extend into the morning hours, as the driver was not initially aware of the burst as they were conducting sweeping and oil was spread out over a number of streets in that vicinity.”

—Staff writer Meena Venkataramanan can be reached at meena.venkataramanan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @mvenk82