Houston commuters faced yet another snarl on I-10 East Freeway Friday afternoon, as two massive spools rolled off a big rig and onto the westbound lanes. Authorities had to shut down the freeway at Wayside, causing substantial delays during rush hour traffic. ABC13 covered the incident with footage from SkyEye, showing the chaotic scene as the out-of-place spools lay in the path of exasperated drivers.

The Texas Department of Transportation reported the lanes were closed after 4 p.m. and informed the public via a social media post. Houston is no stranger to this peculiar problem. Spools, which are industrial-sized cable reels that can weigh upwards of 18,000 pounds, seem to have a history of escaping their haul on Houston's freeways; a cursory timeline of such events produced by ABC13 suggests this has been a recurring issue over the past five years.

This isn’t the city’s first rodeo with rogue spools. In December last year, drivers had to dodge another spool that came crashing onto the road after an 18-wheeler hit a railroad overpass. The Houston Chronicle noted that in August, two spools fell on the Katy Freeway, and this same location had seen a similar incident the previous year as well.

Traffic along I-10 East resumed by evening, as the lanes reopened once crews cleared the spools off the freeway. While these occurrences might seem comical to some, they pose a serious threat to safety and disrupt the daily commute for thousands of Houstonians. The frequency of these incidents continues to raise questions about the secure transport of oversized items through urban areas and what the city might do to prevent future freeway follies.