I-95 bridge collapse / fire - Philadelphia
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It appears to have crashed under the overpass, which perhaps rendered the driver unable to extricate himself from the wreckage.
Yes, the news story I read noted: "trapping the tanker truck and whoever was inside beneath 500 tons of concrete, steel and rubble."
One of our VP and civil engineers (design) is estimating it'll take at least a year rebuild the bridge. Because of the fire everything needs to be built brand new and ordering new steel girders that big, which most foundries are now overseas, is not a cheap or easy process; basically take a number and wait and that's why bridge construction is always a huge project. Of course, maybe the foundry could be offered more money to prioritize this project but who knows how the public will react to that. If this was a 'normal' construction, they'd be looking at a minimum of 2-3 years just for bidding.
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I suspect that the driver was already deceased before the bridge collapsed.
X2^^^, & THAT's one major problem. A bridge designed such that quick impact & fire - destroy it. Hopefully modern standards are higher;
2nd, lack of national-@-home-structure for N.merican on-shore maintainence (all sold off continent for 1/4ly stock stats) a guy or 2 (may B a dept) seeking 'ata boys' for the corp/self;
3rd, political will to whip out a replacement as public service to the local citizenry. "Our city has tripple A plus, plus plus bond rating as we keep a good balance in our rainy day account. MY managment has led to this" - well mayor (or whoever's at this level) ! It's time to let it out, float another 1 for this here purpose NOW
2nd, lack of national-@-home-structure for N.merican on-shore maintainence (all sold off continent for 1/4ly stock stats) a guy or 2 (may B a dept) seeking 'ata boys' for the corp/self;
3rd, political will to whip out a replacement as public service to the local citizenry. "Our city has tripple A plus, plus plus bond rating as we keep a good balance in our rainy day account. MY managment has led to this" - well mayor (or whoever's at this level) ! It's time to let it out, float another 1 for this here purpose NOW
It appears that PA DOT has hit on a quick fix solution.
Fill in the underpass area and rebuild the interstate on the fill.
The longer term solution will involve rebuilding the underpass with the interstate passing over it, as was the case prior to the disaster.
An innovative solution to get an important bit of infrastructure back into service quickly.
Fill in the underpass area and rebuild the interstate on the fill.
The longer term solution will involve rebuilding the underpass with the interstate passing over it, as was the case prior to the disaster.
An innovative solution to get an important bit of infrastructure back into service quickly.
nice! but twice the disruption? now and @ replace time. Cant win !
Another example would be the Skagit River bridge on Interstate 5 in Washington. Within a month they had a temporary span in place. Construction was fast tracked. They built the new span alongside the old one and slid it into place. The whole job took four months.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Skagit_River_bridge_collapse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Skagit_River_bridge_collapse
Seems like yesterday, but my 25 year old daughter had not even started at WWU yet, since graduated and had our grandson, and now we above you with that bridge separating us!
Unlike the Philadelphia accident, there was no feasible detour available for large amounts of traffic. I was out of country at the time so I can only imagine how this impacted transportation between Canada and the US at that point.
Southbound routed through town. Nasty, my biz partner lived in Bham - he did it a few times. I just avoided Maybe took 9 once.
Here in WV where there seems to be three bridges per mile on the interstate lol we have several secondary roads the go under the interstate by constructing a concrete tunnel for the secondary road to drive thru and fill the top in with dirt and then pave the interstate over top of it. The tunnel is made of quarter circle arches that set on a foundation on either side of the secondary road and meet each other at the top of the tunnel holding each other up.
Latest Update:
NASCAR to the rescue:
https://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/...ws-get-help-nascar-jet-dryer-effort-reopen-95
NASCAR to the rescue:
https://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/...ws-get-help-nascar-jet-dryer-effort-reopen-95
I can’t believe it only took 12 days to reopen the freeway.
That's almost a miracle and very surprising. That's how long it should always take to do that length/size job. Glad to see they did it right on this one.
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