The section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia that collapsed following a truck fire on June 11 will reopen within two weeks, Pennsylvania’s governor says.
“I can state with confidence that we will have I-95 reopened within the next two weeks,” Gov. Josh Shapiro told reporters at a briefing with President Joe Biden at Philadelphia International Airport. “We are going to get traffic moving again, thanks to the extraordinary work of those here and our incredible union trade workers.”
Officials have come up with a temporary solution that will speed up the construction of an interim roadway, which will open three temporary travel lanes in each direction.
PennDOT hired Philadelphia-based contractor Buckley & Co. to provide the backfill for the gap in I-95 after the section collapsed when a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline flipped on an on-ramp and caught fire.
The heat from the fire melted the roadway’s steel support structures, causing a 100-feet section of an elevated section of the highway, which services an average of 160,000 vehicles a day, in the northeast part of the city to collapse.
Truck driver Nathan Moody, 53, was killed in the crash. No other people were injured.
Workers will fill the gap—which is roughly 150 feet wide—by piling recycled foam glass aggregate into the underpass area, bringing it up to surface level, and then paving it over, Shapiro said.
“This approach will allow us to avoid delays due to shipping and supply chain issues and pursue a simple, quicker path.
“Once fill is complete, eight inches of modified sub-base will be installed, edge and median barrier will be installed, and the transition between the new roadway and existing lanes will be prepped.
“Paving operations will begin soon after. Equipment is being staged and mobilized for [the] next steps and work continues.”
Crews have been working 24 hours a day, rain or shine, trucking in 2,000 tons of the lightweight glass nuggets to get Pennsylvanians moving again.
“Our teams are working around the clock to get these repairs done efficiently and safely,” state Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll said.
The company supplying the glass aggregate, AeroAggregates of North America, has a production site just south of Philadelphia along the Delaware River. There, it mills glass bottles and jars diverted from landfills into a powder and heats it into a foam to produce small, lightweight nuggets that are gray and look like rocks but are as light as Styrofoam, CEO Archie Filshill said.
Each one is about an inch or 1 1/2 inches wide.
The disruption will likely raise the cost of consumer goods because truckers must now travel longer routes, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. Of all traffic that uses the I-95, 8 percent are trucks, he added.
Once complete, cars and trucks can use the temporary portion of I-95 as crews work to build a replacement bridge next to the temporary structure, officials said.
The federal government has already released $3 million in emergency funds to assist with the repairs. Biden said that “a lot more” federal funding will come to Pennsylvania “in the coming weeks.”
