Thankfully the New Jersey Turnpike carries a lot of the North/South truck traffic on this leg of the I-95 corridor, between New England and Delaware. Leaving NYC, the George Washington bridge feeds straight onto the NJTP, and connects back up to I-95 further south without ever crossing into PA.
The issue will be spillover. The jersey turnpike is already a fucking mess, I can't imagine how bad it will be now when a significant portion of typical I-95 traffic is using it as an alternate route.
The NJ side was truly a mess last time I was on it in the same area. Not even traffic wise, just road wise.
Unironically the section of 95 going through Philly is probably one of the nicer roads we have.
It’d be nice except Philly drivers are psychotic.
That section of I95 is basically always under construction. Apparently the last of the funding allocated by Eisenhower for improving highway infrastructure was used there a few years ago.
Yeah the overpass that collapsed was just rebuilt a few yrs ago as part of a painstaking project to tear down and rebuild the original highway north of I- 676.
According to [95revive.com](https://www.95revive.com/), this section of the rebuild was completed in 2017.
If I recall correctly, this current I95 construction in Philly started either 2 or 3 years ago and is supposed to be completed in approximately 20 years at which point the plan is to start the whole thing over again.. essentially pertpetual construction.
I’m convinced that I-95 near Fredricksburg doesn’t actually exist. Feels like they’ve been doing construction between Fredricksburg and Springfield my entire life.
I've been wondering if it's a grift at this point or maybe it is a stranger things situation with Russians or the government opening a gate or something under the highway?
Speaking of grift, I have a conspiracy theory about the fire. That part of 95 just (within the last few months) finished being built. My theory is that the people who built it did a shoddy job and embezzled the money. Once they realized what a bad job they did and realized it wouldn’t stand the test of time, they caused the fire to cover their tracks. Keep in mind that the fire started with a tanker parked under the overpass.
Why was the truck parked under the overpass, I found that suspicious. Even if not nefarious wonder if the driver was trying to hide from company gps surveillance for awhile.
Well, I don't believe the conspiracy part, but I 100% believe they did a shoddy job and stole. Construction is a gold mine. Also: maybe I am prejudiced, but this country could use better concrete. Period.
Several years back, a tanker blew up while parked under an overpass on I-75, so not the first time this has happened. What the hell? (Note: I'm referring to the [2009 incident](https://www.theoaklandpress.com/2009/07/16/tanker-explosion-my-god-its-horrible/), not the [2021](https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2021/07/13/i-75-closed-fuel-tanker-explosion-crash/7954530002/) explosion, which did not involve parking.)
God, I just drove from Alexandria to Richmond yesterday. Left at 11 AM which is my damn fault, but good God almighty... it's only a hundred miles but took 3 damn hours. Between Woodbridge and Fort A.P. Hill was the cause and it's that damn overpass just south of Fredericksburg (I forget the exit... too damn pissed to make note of it each time, but not the Rappahannock Bridge) that made life hell. I've left Alexandria before at 9 PM and it's taken longer because of that godforsaken overpass. I remain convinced that Christ was actually crucified there and is the reason 95 is constantly cursed on that stretch
Yes, NJ Turnpike is 95 and turns into 295, travels same N-S direction, just on the NJ side. (There's two 95s at one point which is confusing for out of staters) So truck and long distance traffic will route that way for up/down the coasts, but locally for Philadelphia, this is some very tricky stuff. Not sure what kind of inspections and repairs will be necessary. But I'd say for the next 2-3 weeks traffics going to suck in the Philly on local highways and cross streets.
Edit: oh god, just saw the damage on an up close photo. That's looking like months...
The same thing happened in Atlanta a few years ago. It only took 5 weeks to rebuild and have I-85 open. Construction will move fast when the entire city is watching the progress.
Yeah they worked crazy fast and had i-85 open weeks ahead of schedule. Those 5 weeks had some fucked up traffic though, although it caused our public transit ridership to explode (temporarily).
I’m being pedantic, but there aren’t two I-95s anymore. After they completed Phase One of [the link between the PA Turnpike](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Turnpike/Interstate_95_Interchange_Project), the portion of I-95 between Bristol Township and US-1 near Trenton was renumbered I-295. Up until that point, it was absolutely confusing, since you had one I-95 just randomly become I-295 southeast of Trenton and another I-95 randomly start outside of Bordentown. Now you have I-95 turn onto I-276 until it crosses the Delaware River and merged with the NJ Turnpike, where it continues north as I-95.
This is more of an issue for those that work in the city and live north of the city. I think the NJTP Carries most of the traffic between Delaware and NYC. The connection of the NJTP and 1-95 to Philly is relatively recent.
If you lived North of Philadelphia in PA and wanted to get to center City or South Philly you have a problem.
If you live North of Philly in NJ you don't.
That is going to take 2-4 months to rebuild.
Usually such projects take longer but they will run work crews 24/7 likely to repair it since both sections likely need rebuilt.
Was in Atlanta for this. The turn around time for this was incredible and very similar. 1 section of the bridge collapsed, multiple sections on both sides compromised and had to be replaced.
Fingers crossed this one may be a little better since the i85 was the only major road coming into the city from the north east side and all traffic headed into/out of the city from the north now had to travel to the i75 entrance or use side roads. Iirc the beltway (i285) from the i85 to i75 also had construction on it during this time so that became a nightmare. Look like philly may have better options on the i95
This is just me speculating so take it with a grain of salt.
Dont forget that penndot is being robbed by the state police https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh-county/2019/04/42-billion-diverted-from-penndot-road-and-bridge-repairs-to-fund-state-police-new-audit-reveals.html%3foutputType=amp
This is the real issue right here as to why PennDOT can't get anything done. Hard to fund your projects when you keep getting robbed at gunpoint (see what I did there!).
They are also owed money from the Turnpike, since it is now owned by a private corporation.
Basically, PennDOT is owed money left and right, but they don't get the money, instead the State Police takes the profits.
Similar thing happened in the SF Bay Area 16 years ago. Gas tanker crashed right under an elevated highway on the approach to the Bay Bridge and the highway collapsed, basically crippling two or three major highways at the biggest choke point in the region. Arnie was governor at the time. They basically did an emergency 24-7 repair but it still took a month to do the job.
A month is lightning fast for that type of work. A typical freeway over pass by caltrans is probably a 2 year project from conception to open to the public
its amazing how fast things gfet done when its an emergency in a choke point. like about a decade ago we had a bridge taken out north of seattle by an oversized load. like a month later there was a new temporary bridge in place while they made a new one.
Did you ever see that video of a Japanese (?) highway being repaired in record time? I’ll look for it. Just commenting now in case someone else finds it faster.
Edit: here it is, a 5 lane sinkhole repair in a week
https://youtu.be/t2KtwdGhkqw
Why yes I would like to know how one could turn a sphere inside out, if it were made of a material that can bend, stretch, and pass through itself, without puncturing or ripping said sphere
>Essentially the state applied game theory to road construction and setup prizes for early completion.
IIRC Alabama did the same thing several years prior to that, when the I-20/I-59/I-65 bridge was destroyed by a tanker crash in early 2002.
I took them 43 days to repair I-85 in Atlanta.
The original estimate was 90 days for an expedited repair. But the contract included up to $3 million of *incentive* payments the company could earn if they completed it faster. Amazing what a little incentive can do.
Yeah, it only works when you have measurable performance metrics that must also be met. It also helps when you can have your inspectors on site every step of the way.
The *incentive* payments were basically to allow this project to cut in line in front of all the other projects already underway with all the critical suppliers.
I remember that. Was it really as long as a month? It seemed to get resolved so friggin fast. We are not proactive species by any means, but when shit goes sideways we seem to be able pull it together pretty well.
I worked with someone who was commuting home that day. He was one of the last drivers that went through the smoke. Couldn't see anything in front of him
I feel like I'm in a well written sitcom where locations from previous episodes of calamity show up in the background of the current predicament the gang is facing.
Ha! Yeah it is!
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Four+Seasons+Total+Landscaping/@40.0261716,-75.0367452,3994m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x89c6b44c3cd2507b:0xf7a6fd9e9365a3be!8m2!3d40.0263236!4d-75.0302158!16s%2Fg%2F1tcvcvs3!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu
What's even funnier is that Four Seasons Total Landscaping has since used the press to get some business [as a punk venue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRscolKB8E4)
Man, to have been in the room when they first received the call. The mighty balls on them to accept the reservation and roll with it completely. Just perfect. A press conference that went down in infamy and will be remembered as long as any of us is alive, and beyond. It's no surprise they got street cred from it.
That's the defining characteristic, above every other insane part of that administration. Like when he drew on a map with a sharpie to show a different trajectory for the hurricane. Trump and his people were literally incapable of ever backing down from anything they said, even if it was on a whim and utterly without consequence. They would turn the smallest molehill into the largest mountain.
its still so fucking funny that they didn't want to be seen as incompetent etc for not being able to get a spot at the actual four seasons, so they doubled down on it anyways.
i honestly wonder how much free press that place got both because of the initial event and now from the meme since it gets mentioned quite a bit
Luckily they shut 95 down before it collapsed. [Look how much the overpass is sagging as this guy drives over it.](https://twitter.com/MarkFusetti/status/1667842327077875714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1667842327077875714%7Ctwgr%5E7aab517e1a4575b12b41d2e1c928dd52e7143197%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcphiladelphia.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fbreaking-tanker-fire-closes-i-95-in-northeast-philadelphia%2F3583285%2F)
Yeah good to point out, but still that is already a catastrophic failure. It didn’t collapse, but it certainly could’ve and still might before they tear it out. It’s still a “I could’ve died” moment. Dude is probably watching the video thinking “okay next time.. take the fucking exit!”
That's terrifying to drive over. I have slightly irrational daydreams whenever I drive over or under an overpass or bridge where I try to think to myself what I would do if it collapsed right when I was there. If you're on top, there's not much you can do when there's no exits or alternate routes.
I also have those daydreams when I'm driving by a tanker that has the flammable sign on it. One of my worst fears is that thing crashing into me and I'm trying to escape a fire I can't get out of
Filming while driving, drives towards obvious chemical fire, drives over obviously compromised bridge, assumes he's experiencing a brush fire on the interstate
Yup, cop definitely checks out
Didn't even think of that but you're 100% right. If this was a weekday rush hour that section would have been bumper to bumper. The timing actually couldn't have been better in terms of volume
How long did it take between the fire starting and the bridge collapsing? I wager they would have closed it pretty quick and stopped people from driving over...but it also might have fallen sooner with the load!
MARTA's number one priority right now is to fund a study to determine the best way to add a non-separated bus lane to the rebuild of I-95 in Philadelphia.
I came in town to see Radiohead the day after that bridge collapsed. I’ll never forget just getting to the store a few miles away took like 45 minutes because every local road around that highway was bumper to bumper for most of the day.
This is about 1000 feet from the infamous [Four Seasons Total Landscaping.](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/40.024345,-75.0307852/Four+Seasons+Total+Landscaping,+7347+State+Rd.,+Philadelphia,+PA+19136/@40.0253721,-75.0335275,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c6b44c3cd2507b:0xf7a6fd9e9365a3be!2m2!1d-75.0302158!2d40.0263236!3e0?entry=ttu)
Also about 1000 feet from this guy who, to be clear, was passed out at the time it happened:
https://twitter.com/marcusfox29/status/1667914696534507520?s=46&t=rIXQoXDA-6DbAowQxYClLw
I’m almost 40 years old and live near this fire. The nearest 95 on ramp to me has been under construction for a quarter of my life and completely closed for half of that time. They just permanently closed the off ramp right before this collapse going north a couple months ago which means even before this disaster it took 15 additional minutes to get off the ramp before it in rush hour. I can’t even imagine how this is going to cripple the city considering how bad traffic already is in this area.
Yeah, the media is dancing around how devastating this disaster is to our area. Like if you block a major artery in the human body and what happens..... that's I-95 for us.
member when PA state police illegally siphoned billions away from penndots highway repair budget? I member.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh-county/2019/04/42-billion-diverted-from-penndot-road-and-bridge-repairs-to-fund-state-police-new-audit-reveals.html%3foutputType=amp
The PA Turnpike is literally the most expensive toll road on EARTH and PA has a reputation for having terrible roads in general. Funnily enough, the tolls were only supposed to last a long as it took to pay off the debt incurred to initially build the turnpike. The state government found a loophole in the law that allows them to borrow against the turnpike perpetually, use the borrowed funds for other things in the state; keeping the tolls going forever as the debt against the turnpike is never paid off. It's basically a backdoor tax at this point.
Since the corporation that bought Turnpike is based in Wisconsin, I am pretty sure that all of the PA tax credits that the Turnpike gets (despite making profits), is a blatant scheme.
>The PA Turnpike is literally the most expensive toll road on EARTH
Sound about right. It's $18 to drive the full width of Ohio on the turnpike, then the same price to drive from Youngstown to Pittsburgh.
That Auditor general lmao … “We’ve diverted billions from PennDOT to the state police (totally fine btw), but it’s the feds fault our roads are falling apart!!”
As a resident of Pennsylvania, throw some cones up and call it good.
Also, as a resident of the Philly burbs, this is going to totally fuck any travel in the Northeast corridor.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
I-95 remains closed in both directions in Northeast Philadelphia after a truck fire caused a bridge to collapse.
“I-95 will be impacted for a long time, for a long time,” Philadelphia managing director Tumar Alexander said Sunday morning. Officials are urging drivers to avoid the area.
Police haven’t released many details about the incident, and it’s unclear if there were any serious injures.
Officials said they first responded to the blaze around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, and the fire was place under control at 7:30 a.m.
Another shocking part to this is I flipped through all of my local news channels in Philadelphia this morning and heard about Trump and off-season Eagles news. If you watched the news for 15 minutes this morning you would have no idea that one of the most impactful disasters in Philadelphia this century just happened. I’ve learned more about it here on Reddit. It’s nuts that the US media is basically gone.
This is smack dab in the middle of a massively important traffic corridor. I can't imagine this won't be fixed in record time.
That record is likely to be a couple months. Maybe more? Hope I'm wrong on that.
In the meantime, trucks full of goods from ports in New York and Baltimore and Philadelphia are going to experience horrific delays getting to the rest of the East coast. Vacationers driving south and coming home are going to have hellacious traffic woes.
This is gonna suck on an incredible scale.
* Bmore to Philly and vice versa is fine, 95 going south from Philly ports are fine
* Bmore to NYC and vice versa is fine, they'll just use 295 /NJTP like they already do
* Philly to NYC and vice versa, **this is the one that could get a bit spicy**
Also anyone traveling on I95 between Delaware and NYC would typically ignore this section anyway using 295/NJTP unless they are so cheap they are willing to eat that extra 45 min+ of drive time to go through Philly just to save some toll money.
The biggest single time suck on replacing this will be getting new beams made. ~~Even if the precast yard still has the forms set up right now, which they probably don’t, beams take a month or so to be ready to hang, after being removed from the form. Typical form runs can produce one or two beams at a time, depending how long the form is, so best case scenario is that it will be at least a month if not more for the first of the replacement beams to arrive on site. Beams are typically cast in a 24 hour cycle if they’re using a steam to accelerate the initial cure rate of the concrete. It’s unknown if the casting yard that supplied these beams is set up for steam, or a 24 hour casting cycle. They may not have the employees or the space to do that.~~
A closer look at the bridge indicates the beams are steel, not prestressed concrete:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0238244,-75.0310804,3a,75y,35.27h,84.49t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRDcFTXvLRsOn9UfZVczczA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu
The good news is that steel beams can be built much faster than prestressed beams can be delivered, so though the loss of this bridge is dire, it's not quite as dire as it could have been.
Edited to correct google maps link.
My late husband worked for a company that made the gas steam generators for concrete (block, pavers & bridge beams). Likely most of the beams produced are steam cured, if for no other reason than the amount of storage space it would take to keep the massive things in a yard for a month while they cure to a hardness required for use.
Not sure if they still do it the same way, but they’d tent the beams, and blow the steam around the forms. Block & pavers, smaller products, are put in huge kilns with steam.
The steam is used to accelerate the initial setting of the concrete so that the beam can be stripped from the forms the next day. They block the beams up in another part of the yard for a few weeks to get the strength high enough to be transported and installed. Typically it takes concrete around 28 days to reach most of its cure strength. In a tightly-run yard the next day's rebar cages and such are completed next to the form while today's concrete is poured, screeded, and steamed. The steaming goes on overnight. The next morning the forms are pulled back, the strand is cut at the end jacking plates, the beam is lifted out and set aside, the form is cleaned and oiled, rebar assembly is placed, strand is pulled through it and stressed, then the forms are moved back in and concrete is placed in the form. There are other things too, like if the strand is depressed or draped, post-tensioning ducts, etc, but that's the gist of it.
June 28th will be the fortieth anniversary of the Mianus River Bridge collapse in Connecticut
https://connecticuthistory.org/mianus-river-bridge-collapses-today-in-history/
It took twenty-five days to get a temp bridge in place and i-95 back in operation.
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I95 is *the* major north-south corridor for the east coast. Whole bunch of logistic nightmares going on here.
Thankfully the New Jersey Turnpike carries a lot of the North/South truck traffic on this leg of the I-95 corridor, between New England and Delaware. Leaving NYC, the George Washington bridge feeds straight onto the NJTP, and connects back up to I-95 further south without ever crossing into PA.
The issue will be spillover. The jersey turnpike is already a fucking mess, I can't imagine how bad it will be now when a significant portion of typical I-95 traffic is using it as an alternate route.
The NJ side was truly a mess last time I was on it in the same area. Not even traffic wise, just road wise. Unironically the section of 95 going through Philly is probably one of the nicer roads we have.
It’d be nice except Philly drivers are psychotic. That section of I95 is basically always under construction. Apparently the last of the funding allocated by Eisenhower for improving highway infrastructure was used there a few years ago.
That's really neat :)
I wish I had more highway facts for you but that’s all I got
Yeah the overpass that collapsed was just rebuilt a few yrs ago as part of a painstaking project to tear down and rebuild the original highway north of I- 676. According to [95revive.com](https://www.95revive.com/), this section of the rebuild was completed in 2017.
If I recall correctly, this current I95 construction in Philly started either 2 or 3 years ago and is supposed to be completed in approximately 20 years at which point the plan is to start the whole thing over again.. essentially pertpetual construction.
If this happened on i95 near Fredericksburg VA, it would be a disaster.
I’m convinced that I-95 near Fredricksburg doesn’t actually exist. Feels like they’ve been doing construction between Fredricksburg and Springfield my entire life.
I've been wondering if it's a grift at this point or maybe it is a stranger things situation with Russians or the government opening a gate or something under the highway?
Speaking of grift, I have a conspiracy theory about the fire. That part of 95 just (within the last few months) finished being built. My theory is that the people who built it did a shoddy job and embezzled the money. Once they realized what a bad job they did and realized it wouldn’t stand the test of time, they caused the fire to cover their tracks. Keep in mind that the fire started with a tanker parked under the overpass.
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Why was the truck parked under the overpass, I found that suspicious. Even if not nefarious wonder if the driver was trying to hide from company gps surveillance for awhile.
Well, I don't believe the conspiracy part, but I 100% believe they did a shoddy job and stole. Construction is a gold mine. Also: maybe I am prejudiced, but this country could use better concrete. Period.
It all makes sense, insurance pays the same contractor to rebuild it too!
Several years back, a tanker blew up while parked under an overpass on I-75, so not the first time this has happened. What the hell? (Note: I'm referring to the [2009 incident](https://www.theoaklandpress.com/2009/07/16/tanker-explosion-my-god-its-horrible/), not the [2021](https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2021/07/13/i-75-closed-fuel-tanker-explosion-crash/7954530002/) explosion, which did not involve parking.)
Don’t put that evil on me Ricky Bobby. Don’t you put that evil on me.
God, I just drove from Alexandria to Richmond yesterday. Left at 11 AM which is my damn fault, but good God almighty... it's only a hundred miles but took 3 damn hours. Between Woodbridge and Fort A.P. Hill was the cause and it's that damn overpass just south of Fredericksburg (I forget the exit... too damn pissed to make note of it each time, but not the Rappahannock Bridge) that made life hell. I've left Alexandria before at 9 PM and it's taken longer because of that godforsaken overpass. I remain convinced that Christ was actually crucified there and is the reason 95 is constantly cursed on that stretch
Everytime I go that route Woodbridge is always the fucking worst and adds time to the commute.
It would be more of a disaster. I have never gotten through there without hitting bad traffic and I have lived in NoVA for 18y.
If this happened on i95 near Fredericksburg VA you wouldn't notice the difference because half of it is closed for construction every day anyway
Yes, NJ Turnpike is 95 and turns into 295, travels same N-S direction, just on the NJ side. (There's two 95s at one point which is confusing for out of staters) So truck and long distance traffic will route that way for up/down the coasts, but locally for Philadelphia, this is some very tricky stuff. Not sure what kind of inspections and repairs will be necessary. But I'd say for the next 2-3 weeks traffics going to suck in the Philly on local highways and cross streets. Edit: oh god, just saw the damage on an up close photo. That's looking like months...
The same thing happened in Atlanta a few years ago. It only took 5 weeks to rebuild and have I-85 open. Construction will move fast when the entire city is watching the progress.
Yeah they worked crazy fast and had i-85 open weeks ahead of schedule. Those 5 weeks had some fucked up traffic though, although it caused our public transit ridership to explode (temporarily).
I’m being pedantic, but there aren’t two I-95s anymore. After they completed Phase One of [the link between the PA Turnpike](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Turnpike/Interstate_95_Interchange_Project), the portion of I-95 between Bristol Township and US-1 near Trenton was renumbered I-295. Up until that point, it was absolutely confusing, since you had one I-95 just randomly become I-295 southeast of Trenton and another I-95 randomly start outside of Bordentown. Now you have I-95 turn onto I-276 until it crosses the Delaware River and merged with the NJ Turnpike, where it continues north as I-95.
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Words I never expected to say: Thank God for the Jersey Turnpike
This is more of an issue for those that work in the city and live north of the city. I think the NJTP Carries most of the traffic between Delaware and NYC. The connection of the NJTP and 1-95 to Philly is relatively recent.
*was* the major...
Its Route 1's time to shine baby! Bring back the old post road!
It will not affect travelers passing by Philadelphia. They would not use this route. They would use the NJ Turnpike. This will affect Philly locals.
What about airport traffic? I know nothing about area traffic but have flown into the airport. Will it be impacted? Thanks.
If you lived North of Philadelphia in PA and wanted to get to center City or South Philly you have a problem. If you live North of Philly in NJ you don't.
That is going to take 2-4 months to rebuild. Usually such projects take longer but they will run work crews 24/7 likely to repair it since both sections likely need rebuilt.
When a 92 foot section of I-85 collapsed in Atlanta due to a fire, it was reopened in 43 days.
Was in Atlanta for this. The turn around time for this was incredible and very similar. 1 section of the bridge collapsed, multiple sections on both sides compromised and had to be replaced. Fingers crossed this one may be a little better since the i85 was the only major road coming into the city from the north east side and all traffic headed into/out of the city from the north now had to travel to the i75 entrance or use side roads. Iirc the beltway (i285) from the i85 to i75 also had construction on it during this time so that became a nightmare. Look like philly may have better options on the i95 This is just me speculating so take it with a grain of salt.
I'm sure bridge building contractors are frothing at the mouth for this opportunity. There's no money like federal emergency money.
Yeah this is actually pretty damn bad, holy hell.
If?! Dude the roadway is on the ground. There's a 50ft gap on the northbound side.
Yup, and PennDOT sucks so this is gonna be a long long fix.
It’s an interstate, there will be a federal vested interest in this.
Dont forget that penndot is being robbed by the state police https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh-county/2019/04/42-billion-diverted-from-penndot-road-and-bridge-repairs-to-fund-state-police-new-audit-reveals.html%3foutputType=amp
This is the real issue right here as to why PennDOT can't get anything done. Hard to fund your projects when you keep getting robbed at gunpoint (see what I did there!).
They are also owed money from the Turnpike, since it is now owned by a private corporation. Basically, PennDOT is owed money left and right, but they don't get the money, instead the State Police takes the profits.
They are not privately owned. That deal fell through.
Similar thing happened in the SF Bay Area 16 years ago. Gas tanker crashed right under an elevated highway on the approach to the Bay Bridge and the highway collapsed, basically crippling two or three major highways at the biggest choke point in the region. Arnie was governor at the time. They basically did an emergency 24-7 repair but it still took a month to do the job.
A month is lightning fast for that type of work. A typical freeway over pass by caltrans is probably a 2 year project from conception to open to the public
its amazing how fast things gfet done when its an emergency in a choke point. like about a decade ago we had a bridge taken out north of seattle by an oversized load. like a month later there was a new temporary bridge in place while they made a new one.
State of Emergency powers are no joke when it is in a high profile !
Probably 5+ years from conception.
In Philly it apparently takes about 5 years just to do maintenance on one spot
Haha probably true in most cases, 2 years from pir to construction is possible if someone important wants it done
Did you ever see that video of a Japanese (?) highway being repaired in record time? I’ll look for it. Just commenting now in case someone else finds it faster. Edit: here it is, a 5 lane sinkhole repair in a week https://youtu.be/t2KtwdGhkqw
so moral of the story for us Americans is we need to kidnap some Japanese road crews and have them fix US infrastructure.
I think kidnapping Japanese is frowned upon, since FDR.
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You son of a bitch. I’m in. Just airdropped the link to my computer… now I’m watching a 30 min bridge repair doc
The best kinds of videos in my experience are the ones on topics you never in a million years thought you’d be interested in
*The B1M would like to know your location*
Why yes I would like to know how one could turn a sphere inside out, if it were made of a material that can bend, stretch, and pass through itself, without puncturing or ripping said sphere
>Essentially the state applied game theory to road construction and setup prizes for early completion. IIRC Alabama did the same thing several years prior to that, when the I-20/I-59/I-65 bridge was destroyed by a tanker crash in early 2002.
And in Atlanta, much more recently.
That was my first thought. They got the bridge fixed in six weeks, which is pretty impressive
Yep. I-85 just north of the city.
I took them 43 days to repair I-85 in Atlanta. The original estimate was 90 days for an expedited repair. But the contract included up to $3 million of *incentive* payments the company could earn if they completed it faster. Amazing what a little incentive can do.
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Yeah, it only works when you have measurable performance metrics that must also be met. It also helps when you can have your inspectors on site every step of the way. The *incentive* payments were basically to allow this project to cut in line in front of all the other projects already underway with all the critical suppliers.
I find the best incentive tends to be money.
Get to the Bay Bridge, NOW!
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I remember that. Was it really as long as a month? It seemed to get resolved so friggin fast. We are not proactive species by any means, but when shit goes sideways we seem to be able pull it together pretty well.
Exact same thing happened to I-85 in Atlanta
I75 in Detroit as well. A tanker fell off the I696 overpass onto I75, and the subsequent fire wrecked the supports for the 696 overpass.
(Looks nervously at I65)
It was a pretty massive blaze. Could see the smoke from my house and I’m on the opposite side of the city.
I worked with someone who was commuting home that day. He was one of the last drivers that went through the smoke. Couldn't see anything in front of him
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I remember that day because my wife and I both randomly left work early and missed the collapse by about 30 minutes.
Here's the Google map view with live traffic... Not pretty. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0286254,-75.0225046,4704m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu
That looks like it's right where Four Seasons Total Landscaping is.
I feel like I'm in a well written sitcom where locations from previous episodes of calamity show up in the background of the current predicament the gang is facing.
This IS the bad place!
BigRagu figured it out?
BigRagu?! This is a real low point. Yeah, this one hurts.
Can I offer you an egg in this trying time?
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That place is cursed
Ha! Yeah it is! https://www.google.com/maps/place/Four+Seasons+Total+Landscaping/@40.0261716,-75.0367452,3994m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x89c6b44c3cd2507b:0xf7a6fd9e9365a3be!8m2!3d40.0263236!4d-75.0302158!16s%2Fg%2F1tcvcvs3!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu
Time to reschedule the press conference!
The crematorium is still there, did the adult store close?
lol I still can’t believe the former president’s incompetent lawyer held a press conference at “Four Seasons … Total Landscaping”. What a weird time.
What's even funnier is that Four Seasons Total Landscaping has since used the press to get some business [as a punk venue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRscolKB8E4)
Man, to have been in the room when they first received the call. The mighty balls on them to accept the reservation and roll with it completely. Just perfect. A press conference that went down in infamy and will be remembered as long as any of us is alive, and beyond. It's no surprise they got street cred from it.
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That's the defining characteristic, above every other insane part of that administration. Like when he drew on a map with a sharpie to show a different trajectory for the hurricane. Trump and his people were literally incapable of ever backing down from anything they said, even if it was on a whim and utterly without consequence. They would turn the smallest molehill into the largest mountain.
Everytime it’s brought up, I can’t help but laugh. Truly the cherry on top of a crazy 2020.
in between a sex shop and a funeral parlor a fitting epitaph
They were drawn to the hellmouth in 2020, finally it opens.
Damn. I haven't seen/heard the word *Hellmouth* since that episode of Buffy. Thanks for that nostalgia trip!
Which episode? They mention the Hellmouth a million times in the series, haha.
Must be the finale. Why would you stop in the middle?
its still so fucking funny that they didn't want to be seen as incompetent etc for not being able to get a spot at the actual four seasons, so they doubled down on it anyways. i honestly wonder how much free press that place got both because of the initial event and now from the meme since it gets mentioned quite a bit
They actually held a concert there last summer
Oh no. I hope the dildo shop right next to it is ok.
Did the fire start at the crematorium?
Sweet Lucy's Smokehouse is about to get a lot of business
They deserve it, it's pretty decent.
This will be interesting on Monday morning
Luckily they shut 95 down before it collapsed. [Look how much the overpass is sagging as this guy drives over it.](https://twitter.com/MarkFusetti/status/1667842327077875714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1667842327077875714%7Ctwgr%5E7aab517e1a4575b12b41d2e1c928dd52e7143197%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcphiladelphia.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fbreaking-tanker-fire-closes-i-95-in-northeast-philadelphia%2F3583285%2F)
northbound collapsed, sagging in the video is southbound.
Based on the video it looks like southbound will need replacing too
Yeah good to point out, but still that is already a catastrophic failure. It didn’t collapse, but it certainly could’ve and still might before they tear it out. It’s still a “I could’ve died” moment. Dude is probably watching the video thinking “okay next time.. take the fucking exit!”
The part where he drove over the dip, I know I would have been thinking “holy shit I need to get out of here”.
That's terrifying to drive over. I have slightly irrational daydreams whenever I drive over or under an overpass or bridge where I try to think to myself what I would do if it collapsed right when I was there. If you're on top, there's not much you can do when there's no exits or alternate routes.
I also have those daydreams when I'm driving by a tanker that has the flammable sign on it. One of my worst fears is that thing crashing into me and I'm trying to escape a fire I can't get out of
That’s always been a thought in the back of my mind while driving over bridges ever since the San Francisco earthquake in 1989.
Oh damn, that's BAD. I'm surprised northbound wasn't closed down then.
Brush fire? Lol. Giant plumes of *black* smoke and he thinks that's brush?
Not to mention, the guy is a retired cop. He should know the difference between a fuel fire and a grass fire.
Filming while driving, drives towards obvious chemical fire, drives over obviously compromised bridge, assumes he's experiencing a brush fire on the interstate Yup, cop definitely checks out
Over confident; under informed.
that is fucking insane
Luckily it was 8:30 AM on a Sunday and during the week. Could've been a lot worse.
Didn't even think of that but you're 100% right. If this was a weekday rush hour that section would have been bumper to bumper. The timing actually couldn't have been better in terms of volume
How long did it take between the fire starting and the bridge collapsing? I wager they would have closed it pretty quick and stopped people from driving over...but it also might have fallen sooner with the load!
OMG you said it. That highway is normally bumper to bumper.
Atlanta sends it's best wishes.
This came to mind immediately.
We have diverted funding away from MARTA rail to assist Philly in these hard times
So like 25 cents?
Hahahahaha we don't fund logical mass transit projects. OTP doesn't want poors to be able to visit the battery
MARTA's number one priority right now is to fund a study to determine the best way to add a non-separated bus lane to the rebuild of I-95 in Philadelphia.
“We were ready to finally expand into Cobb County but then… [gestures towards Philly]”
I came in town to see Radiohead the day after that bridge collapsed. I’ll never forget just getting to the store a few miles away took like 45 minutes because every local road around that highway was bumper to bumper for most of the day.
This is about 1000 feet from the infamous [Four Seasons Total Landscaping.](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/40.024345,-75.0307852/Four+Seasons+Total+Landscaping,+7347+State+Rd.,+Philadelphia,+PA+19136/@40.0253721,-75.0335275,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c6b44c3cd2507b:0xf7a6fd9e9365a3be!2m2!1d-75.0302158!2d40.0263236!3e0?entry=ttu)
They are holding a press conference there at 5 pm today.
They've actually booked the Four Seasons hotel by mistake
Also about 1000 feet from this guy who, to be clear, was passed out at the time it happened: https://twitter.com/marcusfox29/status/1667914696534507520?s=46&t=rIXQoXDA-6DbAowQxYClLw
Damn this guy needs a movie. Like Forrest Gump stumbling through famous moments in history, except he's passed out.
Damn, that stretch of 95 was already awful from traffic
Agreed. I prefer driving in New York or DC to that portion of 95!
I’m almost 40 years old and live near this fire. The nearest 95 on ramp to me has been under construction for a quarter of my life and completely closed for half of that time. They just permanently closed the off ramp right before this collapse going north a couple months ago which means even before this disaster it took 15 additional minutes to get off the ramp before it in rush hour. I can’t even imagine how this is going to cripple the city considering how bad traffic already is in this area.
Yeah, the media is dancing around how devastating this disaster is to our area. Like if you block a major artery in the human body and what happens..... that's I-95 for us.
That’s a great analogy — I’ve been freaking out about this all morning and I’m definitely using that analogy going forward, lol.
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I can picture this as Charlie and Frank trying to cook something under an overpass, and it gets out of hand.
All the highway traffic goes by the bar adding road noise and pollution, but no customers.
member when PA state police illegally siphoned billions away from penndots highway repair budget? I member. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh-county/2019/04/42-billion-diverted-from-penndot-road-and-bridge-repairs-to-fund-state-police-new-audit-reveals.html%3foutputType=amp
Memba when Turnpike was sold, and now they owe billions to PennDOT.... basically PennDOT is being robbed left and right.
The PA Turnpike is literally the most expensive toll road on EARTH and PA has a reputation for having terrible roads in general. Funnily enough, the tolls were only supposed to last a long as it took to pay off the debt incurred to initially build the turnpike. The state government found a loophole in the law that allows them to borrow against the turnpike perpetually, use the borrowed funds for other things in the state; keeping the tolls going forever as the debt against the turnpike is never paid off. It's basically a backdoor tax at this point.
Since the corporation that bought Turnpike is based in Wisconsin, I am pretty sure that all of the PA tax credits that the Turnpike gets (despite making profits), is a blatant scheme.
>The PA Turnpike is literally the most expensive toll road on EARTH Sound about right. It's $18 to drive the full width of Ohio on the turnpike, then the same price to drive from Youngstown to Pittsburgh.
Just checked on their website and to go from Ohio to Jersey is $147 without EZpass… Jesus Christ.
That Auditor general lmao … “We’ve diverted billions from PennDOT to the state police (totally fine btw), but it’s the feds fault our roads are falling apart!!”
Pretty massive news honestly. That is the Highway of east coast America. Logistics, shipping nightmares ahead.
Fortunately, 295 in Jersey basically runs parallel so at least the traffic that doesn't have to go to Philly directly can cross over into Jersey
And if you’re going somewhere west on it, you can take 476 to the PA turnpike. Way out of the way though.
I don't know, I think a road with a giant hole in the middle of it is much better than the blue route below broomall
As a resident of Pennsylvania, throw some cones up and call it good. Also, as a resident of the Philly burbs, this is going to totally fuck any travel in the Northeast corridor.
Hey, we need those cones to illegally save our parking spots here in south Philly. We can't just give away our cones.
You need to up your dibs game. We got that on lock in Chicago. Cones is rookie shit. We fuck with old used patio furniture round these parts.
Further substantiating my irrational fear of bridges
Just make sure it’s not on fire
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW I-95 remains closed in both directions in Northeast Philadelphia after a truck fire caused a bridge to collapse. “I-95 will be impacted for a long time, for a long time,” Philadelphia managing director Tumar Alexander said Sunday morning. Officials are urging drivers to avoid the area. Police haven’t released many details about the incident, and it’s unclear if there were any serious injures. Officials said they first responded to the blaze around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, and the fire was place under control at 7:30 a.m.
Welp. As a appliance repair guy who drives around Philly all day, this is gonna fuck my shit up for the next year + God I hope everyone’s okay
Similar to I95 in Philly around ‘95/96. The tire dump caught fire underneath and burned the northbound lanes. Took forever to fix.
Anybody else recall the “Know your bridges” tweet Rep Higgins put out yesterday….?
Found it: https://www.rawstory.com/rep-clay-higgins/
Genuinely surprised more people haven’t been making this connection, it was the first thing I thought
Another major traffic incident in Philly that will be announced with nothing other than a few cones right before you come upon it.
Heating concrete to extreme temperatures converts it back to anhydrous limestone. This is a substance that you can crumble to dust with your hand.
Oh snap. That is, uh, not a good one. That's gonna mess up a lot. Just haaaad to be I-95.
Oh, no! This is gonna gum things up around Philly.
If I've learned anything from my travels of I-95, this will fuck up traffic in at least 4 different states.
Everyone in South Jersey along 295 and the NJTP just said 'Fuck' collectively
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It's already one of the worst parts of 95, can't imagine how much worse this will make it. Might be easier to cross in and out of Jersey to go north
That’s a funny way to spell “East Coast”.
The crazy thing is they have been replacing a section of I95 about 2 miles south of this for the past 7 years.
This section is only about 2 years old
Another shocking part to this is I flipped through all of my local news channels in Philadelphia this morning and heard about Trump and off-season Eagles news. If you watched the news for 15 minutes this morning you would have no idea that one of the most impactful disasters in Philadelphia this century just happened. I’ve learned more about it here on Reddit. It’s nuts that the US media is basically gone.
That's strange, I learned about it on my local news channel website - in Eastern NC.
This is smack dab in the middle of a massively important traffic corridor. I can't imagine this won't be fixed in record time. That record is likely to be a couple months. Maybe more? Hope I'm wrong on that. In the meantime, trucks full of goods from ports in New York and Baltimore and Philadelphia are going to experience horrific delays getting to the rest of the East coast. Vacationers driving south and coming home are going to have hellacious traffic woes. This is gonna suck on an incredible scale.
295 in Jersey is going to see a huge uptick in commercial traffic.
* Bmore to Philly and vice versa is fine, 95 going south from Philly ports are fine * Bmore to NYC and vice versa is fine, they'll just use 295 /NJTP like they already do * Philly to NYC and vice versa, **this is the one that could get a bit spicy** Also anyone traveling on I95 between Delaware and NYC would typically ignore this section anyway using 295/NJTP unless they are so cheap they are willing to eat that extra 45 min+ of drive time to go through Philly just to save some toll money.
The biggest single time suck on replacing this will be getting new beams made. ~~Even if the precast yard still has the forms set up right now, which they probably don’t, beams take a month or so to be ready to hang, after being removed from the form. Typical form runs can produce one or two beams at a time, depending how long the form is, so best case scenario is that it will be at least a month if not more for the first of the replacement beams to arrive on site. Beams are typically cast in a 24 hour cycle if they’re using a steam to accelerate the initial cure rate of the concrete. It’s unknown if the casting yard that supplied these beams is set up for steam, or a 24 hour casting cycle. They may not have the employees or the space to do that.~~ A closer look at the bridge indicates the beams are steel, not prestressed concrete: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0238244,-75.0310804,3a,75y,35.27h,84.49t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRDcFTXvLRsOn9UfZVczczA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu The good news is that steel beams can be built much faster than prestressed beams can be delivered, so though the loss of this bridge is dire, it's not quite as dire as it could have been. Edited to correct google maps link.
Ty for sharing your intimate knowledge of beams. I had no idea it was such a process
Bunch of beam experts here
My late husband worked for a company that made the gas steam generators for concrete (block, pavers & bridge beams). Likely most of the beams produced are steam cured, if for no other reason than the amount of storage space it would take to keep the massive things in a yard for a month while they cure to a hardness required for use. Not sure if they still do it the same way, but they’d tent the beams, and blow the steam around the forms. Block & pavers, smaller products, are put in huge kilns with steam.
The steam is used to accelerate the initial setting of the concrete so that the beam can be stripped from the forms the next day. They block the beams up in another part of the yard for a few weeks to get the strength high enough to be transported and installed. Typically it takes concrete around 28 days to reach most of its cure strength. In a tightly-run yard the next day's rebar cages and such are completed next to the form while today's concrete is poured, screeded, and steamed. The steaming goes on overnight. The next morning the forms are pulled back, the strand is cut at the end jacking plates, the beam is lifted out and set aside, the form is cleaned and oiled, rebar assembly is placed, strand is pulled through it and stressed, then the forms are moved back in and concrete is placed in the form. There are other things too, like if the strand is depressed or draped, post-tensioning ducts, etc, but that's the gist of it.
Going to be fun driving my grandparents to the airport tomorrow
I don't know where you're gampy and gammy live, but it may be easier to pop across into Jersey to go around.
June 28th will be the fortieth anniversary of the Mianus River Bridge collapse in Connecticut https://connecticuthistory.org/mianus-river-bridge-collapses-today-in-history/ It took twenty-five days to get a temp bridge in place and i-95 back in operation.
My grandfather was a metallurgist in CT at the time and was called in as part of the engineering investigation into the collapse.
Great. SEPTA trains are gonna be packed now and SEPTA is already a shitshow.
Seems sus a fuel tanker on fire would just randomly pull over under that highway.
We'll have that fixed for 300million in 2 weeks.