Okay, so it was an overpass, not a bridge, & it was a tanker truck on fire underneath it that caused it to buckle & NB lanes to collapse but SB lanes are also comprised
Damn, what is it with bridges this summer, we just had a similar happening on the Gold Star Bridge here in CT … a truck and a car or 2 cars and flames
Thankfully it was very early on a Sunday morning. I believe the last time this happened it was a tire fire and took months and months to fix.
They are still trying to get the fire out and get to the truck.
Hey, my wife and I drove that stretch north on June 2nd and came back the other way on June 5th!
That was our first time in Philly in over a decade, and our first time on that stretch of road in over 40 years.
Hmmm, I see that this happened within a very short distance of Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Has anyone done a wellness check on Rudy?
But seriously, that’s gonna suck for Northeast Philly and beyond. Can’t imagine Frankford Ave or Roosevelt Blvd can handle that much alternative traffic…
As if I-95 were not already where Og tempts the faithful to despair.
Yeah, this is going to be spectacularly bad especially as the week begins and people and authorities have to figure out what are the alternatives. This will also impact the outer Philly 'burbs and the NJ side as people trying to get beween points north-of and points south-of swing around the city.
From the mapping app right now, 95 is closed between the Betsy Ross bridge exit and Linden/Academy.
It could have an impact in trucking and supply for a bit, while they work this out.
Sgt. fusetti drove over the spot before the collapse and while police were responding. You can see the road starting to dip. He said it felt like he was driving over and off a curb.
This also happened in Atlanta several years back. Somebody was storing spools of cable underneath the elevated section of I-85 just N of midtown. A place where homeless folk liked to hangout and do things like start fires. Brilliant.
Really messed up traffic for a while but with incentives the contractor got it done a lot faster than it was initially thought.
Philadelphia should hire that company right now.
It wasn’t just somebody–instead an organization that should very much know better: the Georgia Department of Transportation.
It’s not just this summer. My neighbor was 3 cars back from entering the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis when it went down a few years ago.
And the problem is that this country has neglected its infrastructure for decades, and failed to make the investment in maintenance & improvement that is needed.
Like our I-35 bridge – that had been rated as ‘deficient’ and needing repairs for years, but the Dept of Transportation failed to do so.
Rescue workers pulled a body from the wreckage Monday of the tanker truck fire beneath an Interstate 95 overpass in Philadelphia. The grim discovery came as demolition crews prepared to dismantle part of the southbound lanes after the fiery tanker blast on Sunday caused a section on the northbound side of the heavily-traveled highway to collapse… The order to demolish the lanes came after inspectors discovered that the support beams that hold up the southbound lanes had been severely weakened by Sunday’s explosion, which police said happened after the driver of an 8,500-gallon-capacity tanker truck apparently lost control while trying to negotiate a curve on the exit ramp and slammed into a wall beneath the interstate.
Other sources identify the body as that of the tanker driver.
They are first going to build a temporary roadway, then later a permanent replacement bridge.
This is the temporary repair section.
the belief is that 95 will reopen over this weekend. it has been interesting watching the live feed. this repair has really come along well.
95 is officially open. all of the philly mascots got to ride across the new temporary section.
Philadelphia Sports Mascots First to Cross Repaired I-95 Bridge (thebiglead.com)
Getting the bridge repaired and opened so quickly is nothing short of a miracle. I would definitely test it out with Philadelphia team mascots except for Gritty because I like him and wouldn’t want to see him die in a bridge collapse and fire. That would be fine for the rest of them, and maybe some of the Phillies roster too.
Absolutely, unprecedentedly amazing! I will definitely watch the documentary. We humans CAN get shit done when it matters.
Milestone today: work on the permanent lanes built outside of the temporary roadway is complete. Northbound traffic was rerouted to the permanent lanes earlier today and southbound traffic will be rerouted later this week.
I continue to find this all to be pretty amazing. The temporary lanes were a little narrow and had a posted speed limit of 45 m.p.h. but were perfectly fine. I traveled on them a few times and unless you were specifically looking for this project it wouldn’t stand out from any of the other construction zones that are forever dotting this part of I-95. Next up is to remove this temporary road and the fill below it, and rebuild the off-ramp to the street below the overpass.