A Philadelphia firetruck rolled across a portion of Interstate 95 in Northeast Philadelphia on Friday, marking the reopening of the major East Coast interstate less than two weeks after a fiery gasoline tanker crash destroyed a bridge over an exit ramp.
“Let this serve as an example of how Pennsylvania can do big things,” Shapiro said. “Everyone wanted to help. Everyone wanted to be part of this.”
Shapiro initially predicted that rebuilding would take months, but the state’s Department of Transportation opted to construct a temporary roadway by filling the space that had been crossed by the bridge with recycled glass and paving over the top of it. The approach is likely to push up the overall cost of fully restoring the highway, but it allowed the road to reopen far sooner while helping to alleviate traffic congestion in the Northeast Corridor.
Six 11-foot-wide lanes — three in each direction — opened at noon, a width that’s narrower than before the collapse. Crews will continue to work around traffic to rebuild the bridge, a project that is expected to take a few months.
President Biden, who visited the site on June 17, called Shapiro about the reopening on Friday. The White House said Biden noted “the grit and determination” of operating engineers, carpenters and other union workers who had a role in the project.
“This is an important step forward,” Biden said in a statement. “We’ll be here to provide whatever it takes to keep the permanent repairs on track.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had also visited the site and pledged the support of the Transportation Department and Federal Highway Administration, which provided funding and worked with neighboring states to coordinate traffic plans and roadway alerts.
The segment is a portion of I-95 that splits off in Delaware and heads through Philadelphia while travelers bound for New York and other points north typically transfer to the New Jersey Turnpike.
The stretch carries about 160,000 vehicles per day, spelling misery for commuters and leaving truckers facing long, slow detours through the city. Officials recognized the potential economic toll of the disruption to a key East Coast artery, vowing to rebuild as quickly as possible.
The June 11 crash and collapse of the bridge are under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Authorities have said the truck was leaving the highway using the off-ramp and flipped over, igniting the gasoline it was carrying. Experts say the fire apparently burned hot enough to weaken the steel in the bridge, causing it to fall in on itself.
The truck’s driver, 53-year-old Nathan Moody, was killed.
The bridge carrying the southbound lanes of the highway did not collapse, but inspectors determined it was unsafe and needed to be demolished. Shapiro signed an emergency declaration, making $7 million in state funds available, and the Federal Highway Administration provided an initial $3 million in disaster funding. Officials have estimated the final total cost at between $25 million and $30 million.
State leaders said crews worked round-the-clock to get the demolition and rebuilding done as quickly as possible.
“It is ready for traffic. They are 11-foot lanes — a little tighter than normal — but still not out of the ordinary,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Michael Carroll said Friday. “Please take your time going through this zone. A lot of effort and energy was put into getting this done for us in a quick way.”
The demolition work was completed within a week, helped by crews who were already on-site at the time of the crash working on another project. Pennsylvania State Police troopers escorted trucks carrying the recycled glass aggregate to the construction site as part of an effort to avoid delays, and the public was able to monitor progress on a live video feed.
Shapiro said earlier this week he has been watching the live feed regularly. He described his delight at catching a moment when he thought a load of debris was about to be dumped on the ground by mistake, only for a truck to pull into position at exactly the right moment.
The temporary roadway rests on 7,200 cubic yards of the recycled glass material. Carroll said it has been widely used around the country and is strong enough to bear the weight of vehicles traveling along the highway.
With the temporary lanes in place, the state Transportation Department is leading the work to build a permanent replacement bridge. Crews will then excavate the fill and restore the off-ramp.
“This reopening will bring great relief to the surrounding community, and we will continue to provide updates and support as the process of reconstructing I-95 continues,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) said Friday.
Interstate 95 was reopened more quickly than highways in Oakland, Calif., and Atlanta that were closed for weeks after similar fires in the past 15 years. In those cases, engineers were able to install permanent replacement bridges rather than relying on a temporary structure. But the site in Philadelphia is cramped, making such an approach harder to pull off.