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PHILADELPHIA — As motorists struggled with the first day of what is expected to be a month-long commute on Monday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a declaration of emergency to expedite the rebuilding of a bridge over Interstate 95 that collapsed after being damaged in a fire Gasoline tanker had gone up in flames.
The Northeast Philadelphia fire and bridge collapse are under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Details about what might have started the fire were few, but after the gasoline ignited, experts said it could easily have reached temperatures high enough to threaten the strength of the steel and concrete supporting the bridge .
Officials said replacing the bridge — and repairing the adjacent southbound bridge, which has been deemed unsafe for traffic — could take months. Demolition work began on Monday. The declaration of emergency has made $7 million in state funds immediately available and the state can proceed without complying with normal bidding rules.
The collapse of the bridge, which carries about 160,000 vehicles a day, shut down traffic on surrounding roads and dealt an economic blow to the region by leaving a section of the East Coast’s busiest freeway impassable. The detour involves diverting traffic onto US 1, a much smaller road north and west of the bridge.
Flashing freeway signs on northbound I-95 warned motorists of the collapse about 120 miles away in Columbia, Maryland.
“Accident in Philadelphia at exit 26,” read the message. “All lanes closed.”
Despite the closure, a steady stream of vehicles continued Monday into the heart of the city, past Lincoln Financial Field and an attorney’s billboard with a message reminiscent of Philadelphia asking drivers, “Are you hurt?”
Downtown traffic signs warned that I-95 was closed and urged motorists to use Interstate 676. Traffic swerved on the detour like a school of fish.
A few cars stayed as far as exit 26, where the exit ramp led to side streets lined with row houses, car lots, tire shops, and appliance stores. Traffic pushed forward slowly, bumper to bumper, including a slow parade of cars, trucks loaded with building materials, public transit buses, and a red Toyota Camry with black-painted rims driven by plumber Dave Marciano.
Marciano, 44, grew up nearby but now resides in New Jersey. Many of his customers are from Northeast Philadelphia and the neighborhoods near the collapse.
He stopped at a gas station on Cottman Avenue, where he was filling up after a long night at the nearby casino where he lost “everything,” including his wallet. He was on his way to a job and said the traffic only made his bad day worse.
“It’s never like that,” he said over the hum of the news helicopters. “Cops block everything.”
Around the Tacony neighborhood, police SUVs blocked roads leading east to the Delaware River and the collapsed freeway. Marciano said the closure will “disrupt everything” as his job requires driving through North Philadelphia.
“It’s an inconvenience to drive on 95 from the start,” he said, echoing a common complaint from Philadelphians about road projects that never seem to be completed.
Marciano said he’s not sure how he’ll be doing over the next few months. “Leave earlier,” he said. “I’m pretty smart when it comes to figuring things out.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday he spoke with Shapiro (D) and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D). The chief of the Federal Highway Administration was at the scene and federal agencies responsible for trucking and hazmat transportation were involved in the response, officials said.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke about the Philadelphia freeway collapse during the 2023 annual convention and legislative summit on June 12. (Video: The Washington Post)
Buttigieg said the region “will have the full support of the US Department of Transportation until normality is restored.”
While state officials consider how to restore the freeway, it will be up to the NTSB to investigate the incident. Sarah Sulick, a spokeswoman for the panel, said the team charged with the investigation consisted of experts in trucking and hazardous materials, highways and emergency response.
The Board is expected to issue preliminary findings of fact in the coming weeks, but a full report is expected to take at least a year. The final report could include recommendations on how to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The collapsed bridge was constructed in 2016 and is considered in good condition, according to the state. It was built as part of a $270 million project to replace bridges along a section of I-95 and make other highway upgrades.
Andy Herrmann, a former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, said burning gasoline seemed the likely cause of the collapse. While standard design guides consider seismic protection and other risks, fire protection is not usually a priority, Herrmann said.
“The cost of fireproofing all overpasses across the country would be enormous,” he said.
A study funded by the Federal Highway Administration found that fires in the United States caused bridge collapses 30 times from 1980 to 2012. The broken bridges were made of steel 45 percent of the time, concrete 17 percent, and wood 38 percent, according to University at Buffalo researchers.
“The crash of a tanker carrying a large quantity of flammable substances, forest fires or arson can bring down a modern bridge,” the researchers wrote in 2013.
They also found that “even if a fire caused the failure, in most cases there is also another cause of the failure,” such as the combined effects of fire and collision.
In 2007, a gas tanker overturned near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and caught fire, causing a section of the freeway to collapse. In 2017, an elevated section of Interstate 85 in Georgia collapsed after a fire. The NTSB concluded that the cause had been caused by rolls of plastic and pieces of fiberglass stored under the street.
