Interstate 95 Lanes Re-open

Still, hundreds were slowed down.

John and Sheila Davis of Darlington, S.C., who were on the way to New Jersey to see relatives, were among hundreds yesterday who found the drive on I-95 rough going after the fire.

"I'm from the South, so I'm not used to that kind of traffic," said Sheila Davis. While she was stuck in the gridlock on the northbound lanes she called her sister, who lives in the region. "I said, 'Is this how it is all the time? Where are people going?' "

But John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, who was on the scene throughout the day, found the fast cleanup "amazing."

When drivers "got to the site, there were no telltale signs of anything -- except charred trees on the side of the road," he said.

On a day when all construction projects had been halted to make way for holiday traffic, highway workers launched a feverish scramble to get personnel and equipment to the site to make a quick fix and allow traffic to flow.

Street sweepers and milling trucks from Beltsville were called into action. An asphalt plant in Rockville was contacted. A road painting crew came from Greenbelt.

The first order of business was to clear the highway of debris, which included chunks of the charred truck as well as pieces of pavement. That was finished shortly before 11 a.m.

Then came the milling trucks, which scraped away the top 1.5 to 2 inches of road. At the same time, trucks with 325-degree asphalt were rolling in, and giant rollers used to smooth it down were ready to go.

In little more than an hour the millers had completed their part of the mission, clearing the way for the asphalt. Within another hour, workers had repaved the highway with 66 tons of asphalt, flattened it, verified that the job had been done right and restriped it.

About 30 minutes later, enough time for the asphalt to cool and to remove orange cones, and about nine hours after the incident started, a newly paved and newly striped highway opened for use.

By 6 a.m., signs from Virginia to Maine alerted drivers to the delays. By 7 a.m., local television crews were on site, and the enormous fire was broadcast on national network news shows.