A gas line ruptured by a road construction crew working to widen I-55 in Joliet on Wednesday morning resulted in the death of a Des Plaines man who crashed his van into a semi-truck a few miles south of the gas leak after traffic backed up due to lane closures.

According to a release issued by the Illinois State Police,  a van driven by Courtney Lewis, 44, of Des Plaines, was traveling in the right lane of northbound I-55 about one half-mile south of I-80 when the van rear-ended a semi-truck that was stopped in the right lane.

The accident took place about an hour after a road construction crew working near the Black Road overpass ruptured a gas line, causing authorities to close off all lanes of traffic on I-55 for three hours.

NICOR crews repaired the rupture and traffic was back to normal by about 2:30 p.m., state police said.

Lewis was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where he was pronounced dead.

No one else was injured in the accident, police said.