A fiery tanker crash on I-81 northbound ramp damaged the overhead 22/322 bridge, causing both to close because of safety concerns.
“This is the worst incident I’ve seen on the interchange,” said PennDOT Spokesperson Greg Penny, because of it’s huge impact as a major connection to Harrisburg.
“Did you ever hear of road rage? laughter, i was trying not to get it, it is frustrating. My car isn’t running too good so I was kind of in a panic every way,” one driver says.
“It’s not just the ramp that’s affected, it’s the bridge that carries eastbound 22/322 into Harrisburg and it’s also northbound and southbound interstate 81 and there’s a tremendous amount of traffic over 60- 70,000 vehicles a day that go over Interstate 81,” Penny says. “It’s the Interstate 81 corrider, so we’re talking to our counterparts in the state of New York, Maryland, West Virginia, that use this corrider that they’re going to be impacted.”
Drivers say the detours in place haven’t seemed to alleviate the traffic.
“Carlisle Pike they were bumped to bumper. You couldn’t even move and I was like now which way do I go. But I went the other way and went through some back roads and I still sat in traffic no matter what,” one driver says.