PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Josh Shapiro was in Philadelphia Wednesday morning to explain the plans to rebuild the fire-damaged section of Interstate 95
Gov. Shapiro says the demolition of the damaged highway will be finished on Thursday.
The state plans to build a temporary roadway to get the highway open again.
PennDOT engineers, along with the Federal Highway Administration, have come up with a plan to backfill the road with glass aggregate, a lightweight material made of recycled glass. Once that is done, workers will pave it, creating a temporary roadway
The work will begin on a permanent bridge.
"We cut through the red tape. We developed a creative plan, and we are executing," the governor said. "We are moving full steam ahead, and we will work around the clock."
Updates on the progress of the highway reconstruction are available on the PennDOT website HERE.
"There has been tremendous amounts of work occurring with people that are very talented engineers that are able to design what I think is a forward-looking structure that meets the immediate needs of this community and this city while also making sure that we have a structure that will serve the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for decades," said Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll.
Investigators are still looking into why a truck hauling gasoline went out of control on an off-ramp and flipped on its side, igniting a fire.
Shapiro, appearing at a news conference with transportation officials and labor leaders, repeatedly declined to give a time estimate to reopen the roadway.
“We’re going to get this job done as quickly as possible,” Shapiro said, noting that I-95 is a “key part of our economy.”
Crews will not immediately rebuild the bridge, which is roughly 100 feet long and 150 feet wide. Instead, workers will fill the gap by piling many tons of recycled glass aggregate into the underpass area, bringing it up to surface level, and then paving it over so that three lanes of traffic can reopen each way, Shapiro said.
After that, a replacement bridge will be built next to it to reroute traffic while crews excavate the fill to restore the exit ramp, officials said.
Shapiro said unionized workers will work nonstop until the section of I-95 is repaired. He insisted that the plan is safe.
Demolition was expected to finish Thursday, and trucks hauling aggregate could arrive the same day, officials said.
Meanwhile, 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.
The Biden administration is pledging its aid.
For now, I-95 is closed in both directions. The elevated southbound portion of I-95 was being demolished, as well as the northbound side, officials say.
The disruption is likely to raise the cost of consumer goods because truckers must now travel longer routes, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
Of the 160,000 vehicles a day that travel that section, 8% are trucks, Buttigieg said.
Police say the driver died in the accident. The Philadelphia medical examiner identified him Tuesday night as Nathan Moody, 53.
State police officials said the trucking company had contacted them and has been cooperating but declined to identify the company or say whether it was properly licensed for hauling gasoline.
Authorities say the driver was headed northbound on his way to deliver fuel to a convenience store when the truck lost control on a curving off-ramp, landing on its side and rupturing the tank.
Watch the entire I-95 update below: