The tale of I-95's rapid 12-day recovery – frame-by-frame
Thousands of Philadelphians flocked to watch PennDot’s livestream. Revisit the highlights.
When a fiery, fatal truck crash caused a partial collapse of I-95 in Northeast Philly earlier this month, Pennsylvania workers sprung into action.
Gov. Josh Shapiro quickly signed a disaster declaration, opening the door for federal funding to support what was thought to be months of repairs. The road’s closure impacted everyone from local commuters, to long-haul truckers. Area businesses also felt the effects.
But just 12 days later, I-95 was back open. Shapiro, in partnership with state and local officials, pledged to move quickly from the onset, bumping up the reconstruction timeline and announcing a livestream where anyone could watch the work in real time.
And watch, they did.
The livestream developed its own following, with thousands of viewers tuning in daily to watch the demolition and rebuilding.
With the temporary I-95 lanes now back open, the stream serves as a historical record of the quick work that made it possible – done with what Shapiro called “the ingenuity of Delco” and “the grit of Philly.”
Reconstruction began after demolition of the southbound bridge, which officials determined to be compromised. A temporary backfill was chosen to rebuild the lanes.
Contractors used 15,000 cubic yards of material made from recycled glass, called foamed glass aggregate, to fill in the damaged portion of the Cottman Avenue exit ramp.
Workers continued to fill the site with the recycled glass aggregate. At this point, the first step in the reconstruction process was expected to wrap up days later.
Halfway through Tuesday, the livestream switched camera angles to give viewers an overhead view. Crews built an eight-inch subbase which would later be paved and painted with stripes.
Cranes lifted 13,000-pound barriers onto the roadway.
Crews painted lines along the temporary lanes, one of the last steps before roads can reopen.
Gov. Josh Shapiro took center stage to officially reopen the road to traffic, remarking: “Over the past 12 days, the eyes of the nation have been on Pennsylvania. We've shown them what our grit, our determination, are all about.”
The firefighters who responded to the fatal fire were the first to cross the reopened portion of I-95. They were joined by famed Philly mascots.
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Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer Viewership of the livestream peaked at approximately 7,100 viewers as the public began to drive on I-95’s temporary lanes.
The Cottman Avenue exit from northbound I-95 will stay closed as the permanent reconstruction is underway.
This temporary fix is only the start of a larger repair job. PennDot has not announced plans for further livestreams. Here’s what is scheduled to happen next.
1. The fill is used to support six paved lanes of traffic — three in each direction — in the inner section of the former span, while work proceeds to rebuild the outer sections of the bridge.
2. Traffic is rerouted to the finished outer sections of the bridge. The fill is removed from the inner section of the roadway, and construction begins on the inner span.
3. Traffic returns to four lanes in each direction once construction is complete. The fill will be used in other transportation projects.
There is no timeline for the full reopening.
Methodology
The Inquirer built a scraper that took screenshots of the I-95 livestream every minute from June 16 to June 25. The scraper captured screenshots at a 92% success rate, since it was not always able to capture a screenshot when the stream was unavailable or timed out.
The Inquirer then used Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on the screenshots to find the approximate number of viewers who were watching the livestream. The viewership data was cleaned to remove any anomalies.
Staff Contributors
- Reporting: Jasen Lo and Patricia Madej
- Data: Jasen Lo
- Design and Development: Jasen Lo and Sam Morris
- Editing: Sam Morris, Molly Eichel, and Erica Palan
- Graphic: Steve Madden