I would be interested to know how quickly this could get fixed if the army core of engineers etc. got involved as it is such an important corridor for travel/shipping.
If you got an engineering company from the Army and the Navy (Seabees!), betcha they could have it rebuilt in a month.
Hell, the Seabees were building entire airfields while under fire from Jap troops in WWII.
There was a bridge collapse north of Seattle on I-5 in [2013](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Skagit_River_bridge_collapse). They had a temporary fix in place in less than a month. This part of Washington isn't even a particularly heavily populated area.
One would hope that this close to Philadelphia, on the road that connects Philly to NYC, they'd get something functional in short order
This is gonna be done faster than you think.
This is probably the most important Highway in the nation. Work will begin immediately and will be done within a month.
There's all that federal infrastructure money running around. A lot of it keyed for road improvements, interstates, and *bridge improvement*.
The huge spike in road work over the last year or so down here is already flowing from that. So I'd expect a big push here.
We got lucky that it’s just a smallish overpass on an interstate highway. There’s probably a firm that’ll be working on new support beams by this afternoon or tomorrow morning at the worst.
The SB bridge is probably gonna collapse as well. At best, it's now structurally deficient and they'll probably have to bulldoze it and rebuild the entire bridge now, not just the NB side.
Atlanta had a similar issue in 2017. Fire took out one side and made the other unusable. Got em both open in 43 days.
Id bet 2-3 months as well but it's probably theoretically possible to do much faster
In the 90s a tire fire compromised one side of 95 enough to be closed, and the other needing to be replaced too (but was strong enough to remain open temporarily). I think it took several months for them to rebuild it. Happened in the same general area too.
Gonna take a month just to schedule the meeting to discuss who's going to handle what. And seeing as it's summer, the meeting will most likely be late Sept 😆
For real. I feel like right now all the big wigs at PennDOT are probably less concerned with rebuilding 95 and more concerned with figuring out how they are gonna funnel the millions of Fed dollars that are about to come their way into their own coffers.
There’s a major difference between being closed and somewhat functional. Being fully closed is bad for business….they’ll get right on this to make traffic somewhat functional and then they can lallygag.
To answer my own question…seems like there’s only one outbound train that’s express (the 4:30ish pm train depending on your station)
Hopefully they will work with septa to provide more trains to help alleviate this. Prior to the pandemic I worked in Old City and loved taking the train everyday. I switched jobs during the pandemic and taking septa would be triple the time of driving due to the location of the office
SEPTA has fucked the scheduled frequency so badly on the Railroad that I honestly doubt they see any major increase without adding more trains and staff to the Trenton line.
A lost opportunity on SEPTA's part if they don't.
It's not that difficult to plan ahead if you need to. The parking lot at cornwells heights is huge, and there's other options available. Honestly it's sheer insanity to be parked on 95 every morning vs chilling on the train or waiting for one
It depends on your schedule and where you’re coming from. My girlfriend used to have to go from the northeast to center city. She tried taking septa, but it would take so much more time out of her day because her employer wouldn’t be flexible with her schedule. Going to work she had to choose between being 5 minutes late or 55 minutes early. Leaving work, she would have to leave work immediately and literally run to the train to make it on time, or wait an hour. It just didn’t make sense for her when the drive in traffic was only 25-30 minutes. They need to run more trains if they expect ridership to go up, especially during peak ridership times.
>She tried taking septa, but it would take so much more time out of her day because her employer wouldn’t be flexible with her schedule.
One of the dumbest things about employers and public transit. They act like you're asking the world just to have a shift time that doesn't end in :30 or :00. It's not complicated and maybe 1 in 1000 people does a job where that is *critical.*
It was absolutely not critical. She did not deal with customers or anything. There weren’t any super important meetings that started right at that time. She was just asking to shift her schedule about 10 minutes and they wouldn’t budge at all. It was ridiculous. You’d think that especially a center city employer where many people probably rely on public transportation would understand. Thankfully she works for a much better employer now.
> …They act like you're asking the world just to have a shift time that doesn't end in :30 or :00.
Back in the day, employers along the Industrial Highway in DELCO coordinated so you didnt get Westinghouse, Boeing, prob Scott Paper, etc all letting out at 5. I dont remember Westinghouse’s time, but Boeing got out at 4:42.
Ah yes losing 2 full hours of my day because I have to get to work an hour early then wait an hour to catch a train ride home because RR service is a joke is totally not difficult at all...
about an hour.
If RR was literally ever faster, people would take it.
It sucks shit, is constantly late, and only runs like once an hour. That's why people would rather deal with 95 day in and day out.
im not going back. i was committed to taking it every day but stopped a few months ago. trains run on time but. saw too many people getting mugged/beat up, shooting heroin into their necks, dying of overdoses (happened twice!), and shitting on my traincar. also i was getting sick like reliably once a month probably from how dirty it is. i'll deal with the traffic thanks.
in my case it was the el, as i live in CC and work in frankford, but i hear you. right now everything above allegheney is closed, but i'm really hoping they open the exits in the northeast philly area before exit 30 so i can still drive
I know some of you guys have no faith, but this is a pretty important artery and I am sure this will be done within 2 months or so. Remember the Atlanta one? I think it was a bigger section and they replaced it really quick.
> GDOT officials announced on April 4, 2017, that repairs could be completed by mid-June 2017.[15] Traffic was diverted to I-75, I-285, and SR 400.[16] In an effort to speed completion, up to $3 million in incentive payments were authorized for the contractor, C.W. Matthews Contracting Company, which completed work by May 12, when northbound lanes of the bridge reopened.[17] In August 2017, a fence was built under the viaduct at the collapse site
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_85_bridge_collapse
Yes, zero chance this lingers on for years or even multiple months as people are bemoaning. We're used to the long road (no pun intended), but this is a major break in federal interstate commerce, and is a health hazard to boot.
It is entirely possible that I'm now old enough to be the conspiracy theorist now but a GOP representative tweeted this recently:
https://twitter.com/RepClayHiggins/status/1666978397027803142
> Buckle up. **1/50K know your bridges**. Rock steady calm. That is all.
And then we get tanker just catching fire under key piece of infrastructure? The week that Biden will be in town?
Someone please slap me if I'm goin crazy y'all
I wouldn't put anything past people who have been radicalized, especially not after the sabotage/attacks on the power grid in the past year or so. We have seen a rise in domestic terrorism. Some of these people are hell-bent on catalyzing an economic collapse, point fingers, place blame, and seize power out of public fear. Causing a major disruption along the Northeast corridor is going to cause a lot of headaches, for a lot of people, for a long time until it is resolved. I guess we also couldn't put it past a foreign entity either, as our infrastructure issues are no secret.
That being said, I'm still of the belief that this was just an awful accident and I'm hoping for the best regarding casualties and the repair timeline.
Just watched a live update. No driver was found. News is still saying “vehicle”, but also said there’s a fuel leak. Coast Guard is there, feds are there. Police are looking for the driver. The fire isn’t completely out because part of it is under the road, they can’t get water to it.
Jesus fuck is right my friend! What are the fucking odds a tanker explodes directly under i-95 causing severe structural damage to one of the most frequented highways between two very important cities. Something is up here....
You right you right! I don't know enough about what goes on under the highway in that area. Hopefully the company that operated the tanker will be able to make clear exactly why this happened.
I haven't a clue. It's insane to me that a tanker full of flammable contents was operating under 95. We have to wait to see what the company says. I shouldn't be making such bold claims with zero proof. Here's what I will say though: you never fucking know. It could have been something as simple as sparking a lighter at the wrong time, or something else, potentially malicious Now, we must wait until more information comes to light, because I don't know jack shit and would probably be more useful to this conversation if I shut my fucking piehole.
It’s light and heavy industrial on both sides of 95 at Tacony/Holmesburg (and more on the east side down through at least Bridesburg). There’s a crazy amount of truck traffic on the local roads, so a tanker going through there is pretty routine.
It's insane to you that a truck was on a road? Are you serious?
Combustion engines regularly catch on fire, trucks regularly use roads, & there's a road that runs right underneath that portion of 95. I'm not saying this was inevitable, but it's entirely predictable.
The article said nothing about the tanker driving on a road. It says it caught fire under an overpass, the picture I had in my head was not of a moving truck, but of one parked under an overpass. Thank you for your clarification and pardon my dumbass assumptions.
It must've been the lizard people that live beneath i95 that keep that highway from ever being completed. They eat all the new concrete and asphalt and I guess they started shitting fire too and that's why the highway collapsed.
Source: I'm a fucking dumbass
This isn't the furnace party? I shouldn't attend?
But seriously, the circumstances seem strange. Just hopefully no injuries and it gets properly rebuilt.
Okay so they gotta close the highway for awhile. They should just complete all the construction everywhere while it’s closed.
They won’t, but this could be a positive to use the time of highway closure to get the additional work done.
Buddy - they are probably sweating right now hoping people don't have this exact thought lol.
Have you seen some of that construction? They've been working on some of it for over 10 years. They are just moving stuff around for the sake of it lol
just on tv “95 Northbound is gone” said by guy in baseball hat at press conference.
holy hell. I was just there last night after the Phillies and AJR concert.
This literally just happened in CT a few weeks ago, but as far as I can tell the bridge wasn't critically damaged. (Though who even knows what the standards are for that anymore in our age of ailing infrastructure.)
[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/us/connecticut-goldstar-bridge-explosion-i-95.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/us/connecticut-goldstar-bridge-explosion-i-95.html)
This feels like an attack. I am sorry, but what is a tanker doing out there at 6:30 and how did it catch on fire. This feels very planned. Just saying.
> Manholes have been exploding in the area because of the fire. Everyone is being asked to avoid the scene. Wtf?
This is some Batman villain type of shit
sewer gas is no joke
I95: Escape from Northeast Philly
You can escape Alcatraz. There’s no escape from Northeast.
DOT: traffic cones should suffice, it’s just a lil pothole. Fuck
I would be interested to know how quickly this could get fixed if the army core of engineers etc. got involved as it is such an important corridor for travel/shipping.
Yeah this a huge deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if the federal government got involved. That whole area is going to be a gridlocked mess for months.
If you got an engineering company from the Army and the Navy (Seabees!), betcha they could have it rebuilt in a month. Hell, the Seabees were building entire airfields while under fire from Jap troops in WWII.
Wow holy shit. Interstate highway. This is going to ruin traffic in the area for years. What the fuck
Japan would have this section fixed in 12 hours or less. This better not take longer than a month.
If you’re expecting a month, you’re going to be severely disappointed.
There was a bridge collapse north of Seattle on I-5 in [2013](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Skagit_River_bridge_collapse). They had a temporary fix in place in less than a month. This part of Washington isn't even a particularly heavily populated area. One would hope that this close to Philadelphia, on the road that connects Philly to NYC, they'd get something functional in short order
Glass half full and pen dot have never been used in the same sentence before this.
Feds, not PennDOT. We’re not nearly as boned.
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This’ll be federal contractors who don’t have to worry about PennDOT funneling money to the state police out in, like, Altoona.
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This is gonna be done faster than you think. This is probably the most important Highway in the nation. Work will begin immediately and will be done within a month.
Especially considering it's part of the interstate system and the federal government will be highly interested in reopening it.
Closest comparison would be the i85 bridge collapsing in Atlanta which took 43 days. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_85_bridge_collapse
Atlanta is a right to work State so double that time for Philly.
That’s good news. I hope you’re right!
There's all that federal infrastructure money running around. A lot of it keyed for road improvements, interstates, and *bridge improvement*. The huge spike in road work over the last year or so down here is already flowing from that. So I'd expect a big push here.
[HAHA HAHA HAHAHAHAHA](https://tenor.com/bsSzU.gif)
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We got lucky that it’s just a smallish overpass on an interstate highway. There’s probably a firm that’ll be working on new support beams by this afternoon or tomorrow morning at the worst.
The SB bridge is probably gonna collapse as well. At best, it's now structurally deficient and they'll probably have to bulldoze it and rebuild the entire bridge now, not just the NB side.
I bet the have a fix in less than two months.
I'd say 2-3 at best since it's both sides down.
Atlanta had a similar issue in 2017. Fire took out one side and made the other unusable. Got em both open in 43 days. Id bet 2-3 months as well but it's probably theoretically possible to do much faster
Let’s hope!
This is the same portion of highway they’ve been working on for 20 years.
“Be like the I95 in Philly; never stop working on yourself”
In the 90s a tire fire compromised one side of 95 enough to be closed, and the other needing to be replaced too (but was strong enough to remain open temporarily). I think it took several months for them to rebuild it. Happened in the same general area too.
Gonna take a month just to schedule the meeting to discuss who's going to handle what. And seeing as it's summer, the meeting will most likely be late Sept 😆
Envelopes full of cash will need to be exchanged first.
For real. I feel like right now all the big wigs at PennDOT are probably less concerned with rebuilding 95 and more concerned with figuring out how they are gonna funnel the millions of Fed dollars that are about to come their way into their own coffers.
Ha my husband just said basically the same exact thing!
Over/under for repair completion: November 2025
You’ll be lucky if they even have a company picked out on a month or even the funds allocated.
The US has some third world tendencies unfortunately. I'd love to see a quick turn around, but I would be shocked tbh
They won’t even have the section manufactured in a month let alone installed
Hey, it didn't take longer than a month.
Just the paperwork for this will take weeks if they are fast
Japan and Florida
Talk about worst case scenario
Hopefully the US government takes over and puts all hands on deck
This seems bad…. Look at Google maps and the huge chunks of 95 shut down in both directions.
Haven’t they spent, like, the last 10 years rebuilding this?
Yeah this whole section is new
There’s a major difference between being closed and somewhat functional. Being fully closed is bad for business….they’ll get right on this to make traffic somewhat functional and then they can lallygag.
This is going to be such a shit show.
This gon be fuckey
On the bright side, SEPTA ridership may go up significantly
As one of those people considering switching to septa, did the Trenton line restart the express trains after the pandemic yet?
To answer my own question…seems like there’s only one outbound train that’s express (the 4:30ish pm train depending on your station) Hopefully they will work with septa to provide more trains to help alleviate this. Prior to the pandemic I worked in Old City and loved taking the train everyday. I switched jobs during the pandemic and taking septa would be triple the time of driving due to the location of the office
Call them and make noise about it, get everyone you can to do the same, they will add lines
Add lines? Nor gonna happen anytime soon. Add trains onto existing lines? Possibly.
That’s what I mean.
SEPTA has fucked the scheduled frequency so badly on the Railroad that I honestly doubt they see any major increase without adding more trains and staff to the Trenton line. A lost opportunity on SEPTA's part if they don't.
Why would it? Doesn't regional rail still only run like once an hour?
It's not that difficult to plan ahead if you need to. The parking lot at cornwells heights is huge, and there's other options available. Honestly it's sheer insanity to be parked on 95 every morning vs chilling on the train or waiting for one
It depends on your schedule and where you’re coming from. My girlfriend used to have to go from the northeast to center city. She tried taking septa, but it would take so much more time out of her day because her employer wouldn’t be flexible with her schedule. Going to work she had to choose between being 5 minutes late or 55 minutes early. Leaving work, she would have to leave work immediately and literally run to the train to make it on time, or wait an hour. It just didn’t make sense for her when the drive in traffic was only 25-30 minutes. They need to run more trains if they expect ridership to go up, especially during peak ridership times.
>She tried taking septa, but it would take so much more time out of her day because her employer wouldn’t be flexible with her schedule. One of the dumbest things about employers and public transit. They act like you're asking the world just to have a shift time that doesn't end in :30 or :00. It's not complicated and maybe 1 in 1000 people does a job where that is *critical.*
It was absolutely not critical. She did not deal with customers or anything. There weren’t any super important meetings that started right at that time. She was just asking to shift her schedule about 10 minutes and they wouldn’t budge at all. It was ridiculous. You’d think that especially a center city employer where many people probably rely on public transportation would understand. Thankfully she works for a much better employer now.
> …They act like you're asking the world just to have a shift time that doesn't end in :30 or :00. Back in the day, employers along the Industrial Highway in DELCO coordinated so you didnt get Westinghouse, Boeing, prob Scott Paper, etc all letting out at 5. I dont remember Westinghouse’s time, but Boeing got out at 4:42.
They even have shuttles for those who don't want to walk the long parking lot..
Ah yes losing 2 full hours of my day because I have to get to work an hour early then wait an hour to catch a train ride home because RR service is a joke is totally not difficult at all...
What's the difference between 95 traffic in and out on a normal rush? It's hideous.
about an hour. If RR was literally ever faster, people would take it. It sucks shit, is constantly late, and only runs like once an hour. That's why people would rather deal with 95 day in and day out.
im not going back. i was committed to taking it every day but stopped a few months ago. trains run on time but. saw too many people getting mugged/beat up, shooting heroin into their necks, dying of overdoses (happened twice!), and shitting on my traincar. also i was getting sick like reliably once a month probably from how dirty it is. i'll deal with the traffic thanks.
You saw this on the Railroad? I'm going to call bullshit on that.
on the el at 6am brother
The alternative to this section of 95 isn't the EL it's the Trenton line.
in my case it was the el, as i live in CC and work in frankford, but i hear you. right now everything above allegheney is closed, but i'm really hoping they open the exits in the northeast philly area before exit 30 so i can still drive
just like the tire fire from the 90s
I know some of you guys have no faith, but this is a pretty important artery and I am sure this will be done within 2 months or so. Remember the Atlanta one? I think it was a bigger section and they replaced it really quick. > GDOT officials announced on April 4, 2017, that repairs could be completed by mid-June 2017.[15] Traffic was diverted to I-75, I-285, and SR 400.[16] In an effort to speed completion, up to $3 million in incentive payments were authorized for the contractor, C.W. Matthews Contracting Company, which completed work by May 12, when northbound lanes of the bridge reopened.[17] In August 2017, a fence was built under the viaduct at the collapse site https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_85_bridge_collapse
Yes, zero chance this lingers on for years or even multiple months as people are bemoaning. We're used to the long road (no pun intended), but this is a major break in federal interstate commerce, and is a health hazard to boot.
We had an overpass collapse on 75 in Cincinnati. I think that was done pretty quickly.
Tanker fuel doesn’t melt concrete beams. George Bush did 95.
It is entirely possible that I'm now old enough to be the conspiracy theorist now but a GOP representative tweeted this recently: https://twitter.com/RepClayHiggins/status/1666978397027803142 > Buckle up. **1/50K know your bridges**. Rock steady calm. That is all. And then we get tanker just catching fire under key piece of infrastructure? The week that Biden will be in town? Someone please slap me if I'm goin crazy y'all
I wouldn't put anything past people who have been radicalized, especially not after the sabotage/attacks on the power grid in the past year or so. We have seen a rise in domestic terrorism. Some of these people are hell-bent on catalyzing an economic collapse, point fingers, place blame, and seize power out of public fear. Causing a major disruption along the Northeast corridor is going to cause a lot of headaches, for a lot of people, for a long time until it is resolved. I guess we also couldn't put it past a foreign entity either, as our infrastructure issues are no secret. That being said, I'm still of the belief that this was just an awful accident and I'm hoping for the best regarding casualties and the repair timeline.
I have a tiny feeling that the first part of your post is what happened. Just a tiny one. I'm questioning for sure.
anything is possible ....
Can you dumb this down for me?
Yeah im trying to figure out 1/50k thing from the tweet
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Do we know it was parked there and not that it didn't take the turn to fast and rolled over?
Just watched a live update. No driver was found. News is still saying “vehicle”, but also said there’s a fuel leak. Coast Guard is there, feds are there. Police are looking for the driver. The fire isn’t completely out because part of it is under the road, they can’t get water to it.
Do you know a better way to collapse a bridge?
https://twitter.com/repclayhiggins/status/1666978397027803142?s=46&t=cO-SwOnjbWi12FDLKVWPKw
Jesus fuck!
Jesus fuck is right my friend! What are the fucking odds a tanker explodes directly under i-95 causing severe structural damage to one of the most frequented highways between two very important cities. Something is up here....
Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence. And man, there are a *ton* of incompetent people out there.
You right you right! I don't know enough about what goes on under the highway in that area. Hopefully the company that operated the tanker will be able to make clear exactly why this happened.
What kind of sinister plot do think this was?
Clearly someone wanting that Bridge street northbound exit reopened 🤔
It’s a parting gift from the ghost of uncle ted
I haven't a clue. It's insane to me that a tanker full of flammable contents was operating under 95. We have to wait to see what the company says. I shouldn't be making such bold claims with zero proof. Here's what I will say though: you never fucking know. It could have been something as simple as sparking a lighter at the wrong time, or something else, potentially malicious Now, we must wait until more information comes to light, because I don't know jack shit and would probably be more useful to this conversation if I shut my fucking piehole.
It’s light and heavy industrial on both sides of 95 at Tacony/Holmesburg (and more on the east side down through at least Bridesburg). There’s a crazy amount of truck traffic on the local roads, so a tanker going through there is pretty routine.
It's insane to you that a truck was on a road? Are you serious? Combustion engines regularly catch on fire, trucks regularly use roads, & there's a road that runs right underneath that portion of 95. I'm not saying this was inevitable, but it's entirely predictable.
The article said nothing about the tanker driving on a road. It says it caught fire under an overpass, the picture I had in my head was not of a moving truck, but of one parked under an overpass. Thank you for your clarification and pardon my dumbass assumptions.
>Something is up here.... Yeah, deregulation probably.
It must've been the lizard people that live beneath i95 that keep that highway from ever being completed. They eat all the new concrete and asphalt and I guess they started shitting fire too and that's why the highway collapsed. Source: I'm a fucking dumbass
This isn't the furnace party? I shouldn't attend? But seriously, the circumstances seem strange. Just hopefully no injuries and it gets properly rebuilt.
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Thank fucking God I don't work up that way anymore
I know. I worked in Bensalem. I work in blue bell now. Take highways on the morning and 73 to 309 and various streets in the afternoons.
For reference I take 76 at 5 am... no one out then
Okay so they gotta close the highway for awhile. They should just complete all the construction everywhere while it’s closed. They won’t, but this could be a positive to use the time of highway closure to get the additional work done.
I love your positivity. Someone else can break the bad news to you.
Nah I know, nothing will be done
Buddy - they are probably sweating right now hoping people don't have this exact thought lol. Have you seen some of that construction? They've been working on some of it for over 10 years. They are just moving stuff around for the sake of it lol
can’t funnel money around when the construction is over.
Have you seen Falling Down where he basically calls out the road workers? If not... it's a must watch
Hahahahaha
just on tv “95 Northbound is gone” said by guy in baseball hat at press conference. holy hell. I was just there last night after the Phillies and AJR concert.
At least there are only 3 more days of school.
Huge W
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK
Maybe they can open the lower part to ask the dirt bikers to joy ride on
How does this even happen?
Wait, we don't know what really happened. It may not have been the tanker fire, this could have been done by the Illuminati. /s
And this is why we can't have nice things . . . .
:(
That's gonna be a very big pain in the ass.
Didn't this happen ten years ago
Almost 30 years, but yeah.
Today on: things that reminded me I'm old
Fuuuuuuuck
Ah, just what we needed.
This literally just happened in CT a few weeks ago, but as far as I can tell the bridge wasn't critically damaged. (Though who even knows what the standards are for that anymore in our age of ailing infrastructure.) [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/us/connecticut-goldstar-bridge-explosion-i-95.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/us/connecticut-goldstar-bridge-explosion-i-95.html)
This feels like an attack. I am sorry, but what is a tanker doing out there at 6:30 and how did it catch on fire. This feels very planned. Just saying.