CHICAGO – It was unseasonably warm _ but not baking _ on Sunday, and that probably helped save a portion of the Chicago Skyway from turning into a gigantic, Windy City-style, deep-dish pizza.

The southeast-bound lanes of the heavily traveled route into Indiana were blocked for hours Sunday morning after a tractor-trailer hauling mozzarella cheese was involved in an accident and spilled its contents onto the pavement near the Skyway tollbooth.

Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Marcel Bright said the semi driver had to swerve to avoid crashing into a car that had cut it off about 1:35 a.m. Although the truck driver avoided the crash, the trailer spun out, turned over and broke in two.

Cheese covered the roadway.

Some of the cheese had come out of its packaging, so the cleanup crews had to pick it up by hand, Bright said.

Crews spent more than nine hours cleaning up the scene of the accident and removing the truck and trailer. All lanes of traffic were closed southbound until 10:30 a.m., when one lane of traffic was reopened, Bright said.