Permanent bridges to open at I-95 collapse site in the Northeast

A pair of permanent bridges on I-95 — constructed after a deadly June crash and fire caused a section of the highway in Northeast Philadelphia to collapse — are being opened to traffic this week, state officials said Monday.

The newly-built part of the interstate is replacing a temporary roadway, constructed atop glass foam bricks, that was completed within two weeks of the collapse, which occurred at Cottman Avenue.

Crews will begin disassembling the temporary roadway in the coming days, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Then, they will build a central bridge in between the two recently completed elevated sections.

Eventually, the northbound off-ramp at Cottman, where the driver of an oil tanker lost control, will reopen.

PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll did not provide a detailed timeline, though the department expects the entire permanent structure to be finished sometime next year.

“I will answer that we expect to have that done in a matter of months,” Carroll told reporters Monday. “If we have a snowy and icy winter, it will slow us down. If we have an unusually warm and snow-free winter, it will allow us to advance things.”

The traffic shift for the northbound lanes was scheduled to occur overnight Monday, with temporary lane reductions to accommodate the transition.

On the southbound side, the shift is set for Wednesday. From 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., I-95 in the area will go down to two lanes, and it will operate with a single lane from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., according to PennDOT.

Both bridges will have the same configuration as the temporary roadway – three lanes each, with a speed limit of 45 miles an hour enforced through cameras.

Reconstructing I-95 has been a top priority for Gov. Josh Shapiro and the White House, officials said. Shapiro, who is in the first year of his administration, has pointed to the effort as a major accomplishment.

“I am responsible for all of the roads and bridges in this country,” said Shailen Bhatt, head of the Federal Highway Administration. “But as the president said when he was out here earlier this summer, there is no more important project to the country right now.”

“We’re to a place that I never would have thought of on that first Sunday when I showed up here,” he added.

Early on the morning of June 11, Nathaniel Moody was behind the wheel of an oil tanker truck that lost control as it exited I-95 at Cottman, authorities have said. The vehicle flipped and burst into flames, with the fire compromising the overpass. Moody did not survive.

A live-streamed, around-the-clock effort to get traffic flowing again ensued. Crews backfilled the gap with glass aggregate blocks and opened the interstate 12 days later.

PennDOT said the glass aggregate will be recycled and used for other work, including during the project to cap I-95 at Penn’s Landing.

Officials on Monday thanked Buckley & Company Inc., the Philadelphia-based company contracted to repair the damaged highway.

“Because of the nature of this emergency, it was not traditional 8-hour days,” Carroll said. “It was 12-hour days in many cases, seven days a week in many cases in order to get these two new bridges constructed as quickly as possible.”

PennDOT spent $4 million for the temporary roadway and $18 million for the two outer bridges, Carroll said.