Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is set to release a plan Wednesday to rebuild a section of I-95 that was destroyed earlier this week when a gas tanker flipped and ignited an elevated section of the highway in Northeast Philadelphia, state officials said.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, in a visit to the site Tuesday, pledged support from Washington for the effort to reconnect the interstate.
Crews worked Tuesday to tear down the southbound lanes, which did not collapse but were compromised by the flames.
“We’re going to continue to be here every step of the way for as long as it takes with both financial backing and any other technical support that’s needed,” Buttigieg told reporters after touring the area, near Cottman Avenue and State Road.
“Every resource that is needed will be made available,” he added. “Of course it has to qualify, but there’s no question in my mind that PennDOT will see to that.”
More details, including a possible timeline, are expected Wednesday, when state leaders will “proceed with a remedy that will reopen I-95,” PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll said Tuesday.
“We’re going to try and do it as quickly as we can,” he added.
Demolition is moving swiftly because PennDOT was able to execute an emergency contract hire C. Abbonizio Contractors, a New Jersey firm, which already had heavy equipment in the neighborhood for an ongoing project to improve the Cottman exit, Carroll said.
In the meantime, Buttigieg said the Biden administration has reached out to Google Maps and Waze to better direct commuters, travelers, truckers and others.
The collapse is snarling traffic in Philadelphia as the summer travel season starts, upending hundreds of thousands of morning commutes, disrupting countless businesses and forcing trucking companies to find different routes.
Of the 160,000 vehicles a day that travel that section, 8% are trucks and “obviously that is a lot of America’s GDP moving along that road every single day,” Buttigieg said.
For now, I-95 will be closed in both directions.
The elevated southbound portion of I-95 will have to be demolished, as well as the northbound side, officials say.
A driver hauling flammable gasoline lost control of his tractor-trailer early Sunday morning on a Cottman off-ramp, officials have said. Surveillance footage that surfaced on social media appears to corroborate the account. State Police Captain Gerard McShea, commander of the Philadelphia-based Troop K, said investigators have reviewed the clip.
“At this point we need to do a full analysis to get any real information on it,” he said.
Pennsylvania State Police said a body recovered from the wreckage has been turned over to the Philadelphia medical examiner and coroner. Though officials have not publicly identified the remains, relatives of 53-year-old Nathan Moody have told several media outlets that he was behind the wheel of the tanker.
Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a disaster declaration Monday, saying it gives state agencies the ability to skip normal bidding-and-contracting requirements so the span can be repaired faster.
Shapiro said his flight over the area showed “just remarkable devastation.”
The collapsed section of I-95 was part of a $212 million reconstruction project that wrapped up four years ago, state Transportation Department spokesman Brad Rudolph said. PennDOT rated the 104-foot span as in “good” condition earlier this year, with another inspection set for 2025.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
