UPDATED: Eastbound Highway 40 Chicken Parts Spill Cleared

UPDATE: (7:17 p.m.): Traffic cameras now show that eastbound Highway 40 is open. 

UPDATE (7 p.m.): Monarch Fire Protection District Fire Marshall Roger Herin said that the Monarch Fire Protection District crews have finished washing the chicken parts off of eastbound Highway 40 at Timberlake Manor Parkway. Now, absorbants are being put down to soak up the oil. The highway is expected to reopen at about 7:30 p.m., Herin said.

Earlier story:

Eastbound Highway 40 between Chesterfield Parkway and Timberlake Manor Parkway has been closed due to a spill. Crews are currently on the scene to clean up the mess of chicken parts that was spilled from a truck.

Monarch Fire Protection District Fire Marshall Roger Herin said it could be about 7 p.m. before the highway was reopened. A truck spilled about 100 pounds of chicken parts, he estimated, across several hundred feet of highway.

Either the truck's driver wasn't aware of the spill, or hightailed out of the area, Herin said.

Herin said the spill has made the highway slick, not to mention smelly.

"It smells really awful. It's noxious," Lt. Steven Lewis, spokesman for the Chesterfield Police Department said. Lewis is not on the scene, but has heard reports of the smell.

The police are also assisting in the cleanup. Lewis said the chicken was on its way to a rendering plant. 

Lewis said the spill occured at about 5 p.m.

At one point, Herin said, they thought about using snow plows to clear the road. But that didn't work out, he said. So crews are washing the roadway and putting sand down too, in the hopes of reducing the slickness. 

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has been called in to decide how to properly dispose of the chicken parts, Herin and Lewis confirmed. 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has some photos of the clean-up effort.