BATON ROUGE — Traffic is still crawling 15 hours after a major crash on the interstate this morning near the I-10 and I-110 interchange.

An 18-wheeler traveling toward the Mississippi River Bridge crashed into a guardrail and caught fire, blocking traffic for multiple hours. The truck was carrying bottles of orange juice.

"It was a big fire when crews first arrived," Billy Zachary with the Baton Rouge Fire Department said.

It took a significant effort to bring the fire under control by daybreak.

"It took several crews and about 3000 gallons of water to put this flame out," Zachary said. "Fortunately, there were non-life-threatening injuries involved with the driver and one passenger."

Even after the flames were out, drivers slowed to get a look at the 18-wheeler, which was barely recognizable. One commuter described what the backup meant for their drive.

"It turns what usually is a 10-12 minute commute into a 45 minute trip," the commuter said.

The I-10 on-ramp is one of the busiest thoroughfares in Baton Rouge. More than 126,000 vehicles cross the New Mississippi River Bridge every day.

Now the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has to confirm the route to the bridge is safe before reopening it to that kind of traffic.

"Certain areas where they're cleaning up the pavement right now and they're going to have to inspect it once they're done," DOTD spokesperson Rodney Mallet said.

Mallet said the inspection requires crews to look for discoloration and exposed steel conditions, though he noted the fire likely did not get as hot because the truck was carrying juice.

Norma Jean Mattei, a past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, explained the potential challenges inspection crews could face.

"There's a lot of debris, so they've got to remove a lot of debris in order for them to use their eyeballs because this is going to be primarily a visual inspection," Mattei said.

The barrier the 18-wheeler struck was scheduled for replacement as part of the I-10 widening project.