I-95 Has Reopened

I-95 is open again after that bridge collapse.

There is a lot of chatter on the local radio shows in my area (South Jersey/Philadelphia) complaining about how quickly the new lanes were built when other construction projects on the roads around the Philly area seem to take years to complete.

I'm wondering the same thing too.

Anyone have any theories as to why this construction project was completed so quickly?

By looking at the current posted picture in the papers there, it's not that long of a stretch of bridge span. Maybe they worked 24/7 to actually get something done, since it's probably a major use highway ?? LOL yeah, typically, when you see "road construction" there's never really ANYONE there actually "working"

Many times I went thru such zones, at different times, day or night, all across the country, and rarely see any workers, a lot of times. But then a lot of those were some major, long stretches of highway, being rebuilt.....

Who knows really, but at least it got fixed pretty quickly wow like under 2 weeks? Maybe it wasn't quite as bad as they originally thought it was, once they got deeper into it.

Isn't it only a temporary fix? I heard they filled in the center with dirt and paved it. It will allow some traffic through while they rebuild the bridge on the outside and work their way in.

If it is anything like a Indiana or Illinois emergency repair, in a couple weeks it will have huge potholes and have to close again.

Yes Bobcat, its temporary. They built walls on either side of the ramp where the bridge was. Then they filled it with a recycled glass aggregate that can be compacted but doesn’t need to settle over time. Then they paved over it. That allowed them to quickly get the road passable again.

Yesterday I had to go to the Philly terminal to borrow their extra flatbed. Ours was down a few days and we were really backed up and needed to run 2 to get all the freight and cubes out. That terminal is one exit south of the collapse. The traffic up there was unreal. Its 15 miles from my terminal straight up 95. 1st 12-13 miles were fine, last 2-3 were a nightmare. Took me 3 hours round trip.

No doubt there were financial incentives involved to get this done, albeit temporary, and traffic flowing again. This is common in road and bridge construction, bonuses for getting done ahead of schedule and penalties for finishing behind schedule.

And I don’t think money was an issue. The Feds, who print the money, were involved at the highest level of the Dept. of Transportation.

It would suck to be the insurance carrier for the trucking company responsible for this disaster. And it would be interesting to know how much the demolition, cleanup and rebuild are costing.

That particular area north of Aramingo Ave to Callowhill ST was under construction for several years and only recently was completed.

95 through Philly construction delays are perpetual…

Good to know. Thanks, RealDeihl. They built roads faster in the 1950s than they do today.

All kidding aside. A temporary road surface as some have suggested sounds logical. The road being shutdown is obviously a major disruption to the supply chain. There is huge financial incentive to reopen it as quickly as possible. Let those wheels roll.

They should have hired the construction firm that completed the I-285 collapse near Atlanta a few years ago. Permanently completed astronomically fast. This one will be a longer process, so pack lots of patience if you must travel through the area. Temporary three lanes each way is a lot better than the full closure for the past couple weeks.

It’s amazing how fast things can get done when the red tape is gone. In 2018 Alaska had a large earthquake and several roads were completely wiped out, crumbled. It took all of two weeks to do what usually would take them 3 summers to do.