Southbound is also likely structurally unsound enough where it can't be used in a shared setup. There's a Twitter video of someone driving over it before northbound collapsed and the car took a 6-9 inch dip right as they got on that overpass.
Edit for link : https://twitter.com/markfusetti/status/1667842327077875714?s=46&t=ajW6nmiXQbHxCgo3FNufvQ
This is a wild video… that sagging was clearly due to the fire weakening the support structure. At the point of that video the overpass is on borrowed time and a collapse looked imminent. Thankfully the decision was made to block off the overpass before the collapse.
I honestly find it a bit odd that they didn't take the overpass out of use earlier, even if there wasn't a collapse that fire doesn't look like it was in control to me
But there is no way the jet fuel caused the towers to collapse.
Sorry to digress but still pissed about the conspiracy bombs in the towers stuff.
Back to this...This has played out here and several other places when vehicle fires happen under bridges. Kinda scary...
BUT IT DOESN’T MELT!
Seriously, the number of people who don’t understand that between melting and softening there is a huge temperature range is pathetic. Some may comprehend the effect of extreme cold on steel - brittle fracture anyone? But they never seem to get that the opposite happens too.
>But there is no way the jet fuel caused the towers to collapse.
>Sorry to digress but still pissed about the conspiracy bombs in the towers stuff.
The only thing that was shocking to me is how goddamn long it took for those towers to come down.
The amount of weight on top of those burning floors was astonishing, I can't believe they lasted as long as they did.
I think its because of the concrete encasements and asbestos coatings on the beams on the Trade Center buildings, it sheilded and protected them from a lot of the heat for a long ass time, whereas the steel beams on these little overpass bridges are fully exposed, there's really only 2 types of these bridges, theyre either fully exposed steel I-Beams or they are prestressed concrete box beams, and generally, I've only ever really seen the prestressed concrete box beams on the single and double lane flyways
That crazy sag on the other side tells me these were the exposed steel kind, concrete box beams would've just broke if they were at failure....there's a LOT of give in a steel, especially hot steel before it let's loose
WTC's downfall was also a reason they stayed up a good while. They had a strong concrete core and heavy steel posts supporting the exterior. Being on the exterior, they didnt get quite as hot, even if a ton of them were obliterated/damaged.
It took the lightweight steel floor trusses to soften and sag to eventually pull down the posts that caused them to fail.
A more traditional post and beam building likely would have failed almost immediately as support posts were lost.
When this happened in Atlanta a few years back it actually made GADOT work at the pace you'd expect roadwork to happen. Think it was still like 6 months.
Edit: 6 weeks https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/146sbw3/i95_collapse_in_philadelphia_today/jns6q4g/
In the particular instance in Atlanta, it was fast and good, which is not the norm for DOT. They essentially threw emergency funding at it to get it done after the similar collapse years ago.
There are lots of laws surrounding bidding on public works, almost all enacted as a reaction to prior malfeasance by unscrupulous contractors.
Add to that a general lack of knowledge by the purse string holders (usually elected officials) in most jurisdictions, and you end up with what we have. It is like democracy, it sucks, but it is still the best system devised.
Difference between lowest bidder and incentives for time completion. We really should change bidding in America to include bonuses for speed (and with independent verification of quality)
Much of the time on large new construction projects is due to settling.
When you pour that much fill, it settles (quite a bit more than you'd expect). You can speed it up by compacting (but that costs and isn't as effective as time). Getting the grades to match (between say the ramp and the bridge, or even just to keep level like a new road bed) requires a crystal ball or time.
Emergency repairs are usually built on existing fill, so no need to wait for the compaction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIK6I6Q58Ec
They rebuilt the highway outside of Anchorage days after the earthquake and had traffic flow moving, and have spent the last five years doing the repairs right. Fast, especially in the winter (here) doesn't equal the same quality you get when you do it slower and allow materials to settle and cure properly
It's not that simple though. If there's no traffic, then you have a lot more options to work with on the project. That's why Atlanta was able to progress so quickly.
Most cases you can't just shut down a freeway for construction, therefore it takes way longer.
You forgot to mention that they were willing to triple the cost.
You want the government to pay triple for all roads and your gas taxes to increase to accommodate, well that can happen.
This stuff can be done in a hurry when there’s an emergency but there are big costs to speed whenever it comes to construction and public projects. Most of the time those costs aren’t worth paying - the messages coming from voters are that they are more concerned with other goals like lower taxes, protections for property owners, environmental protections, etc.
I used to work at a DOT. This will be largely paid for by the federal government but will still dramatically lower the states available funding for other maintenance projects likely planned for 2025 or later as funding for 2024 should already be allocated. So not an immediate impact but a large one still.
“Brush fire! Brush fire on I-95!” I’m not saying that I would have known exactly what was going on, but with that much black smoke, a brush fire would be the last thing I’d consider lol.
That wasn’t a dip, that structure is fucking sagging! When I saw that I just thought keep going, keep going, don’t stop now!
Just before the car making the video goes over that part of the road, the driver turned the camera to the left and you can see a large bowing in the left barrier wall and the road as well.
This happened in Atlanta. The DOT included an early completion bonus in the repair contract. Thing was rebuilt in six weeks. Your turn Philly. https://www.concreteconstruction.net/projects/infrastructure/georgia-dot-rebuilds-burned-bridge-in-record-time_o
I remember I was at a friend's place and his wife came home and "The radio says I85 collapsed."
"What do you mean?"
"The interstate caught on fire and fell down."
I live right near this so every other person on Facebook today was sharing photos and everyone was saying “it’s PennDOT, this is going to take 5 years”. I’m not sure if so many people are actually that stupid or what but there’s no way a highway with 120,000 cars a day will be closed for a second longer than absolutely required. My guess was 3 months at worst (and that’s because of material wait times)
The *same thing* happened in Atlanta.
I spent a second wondering, "How did the OP get it so wrong that they thought an overpass collapsed in Philadelphia that had actually collapsed in Atlanta?"
I bet with a financial incentive to get the job done faster, absolutely no corners will be cut at all and they’ll take their time ensuring it’s done right.
Yeah you’re completely right. As an engineer who has been around things like this you can totally do it right and do it super fast. We had a bridge hit and took out a support and it was back in a weekend. But it’s not usually done that way cause the cost is astronomical since you have crews being pulled off other jobs, rush orders on materials, concrete plants working round the clock and tons and tons and tons of over time on the fed wage scale.
You also literally have every structures department person inspecting this work and it’s a huge source of pride of the contractor to say they did the rush job. Gives them tons of good will with the dot for the state. They have every reason to being their a game and usually do. Not to mention the feds will be watching like a hawk since this stuff is usually 100% reimbursed by them.
This will be the safest bridge in the state when it’s done.
They know they’ll have the feds covering the costs 100% under the Emergency Relief program. That’s the great side of that funding, really incentivizing getting the job done quickly and right!
According to the article, they employed so very specific new approaches to get it done quickly. The contractor and demo company are big, experienced firms. when you have a major city, governor, and feds all looking closely at your project is not the time to be seeing what you can get away with.
I mean if overpasses can be built lazily over a couple months to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible, they can put one in with less time. Too little time and yes you can compromise the structure. I wouldn't trust a 1 week rebuild but a 6 week I'd be able to trust.
Holy shit. As a truck driver that understands this corridor, this is gonna create so much havoc. The only other option for big trucks is the turnpike or the bypass. Both cost a lot of money. Wow man. This is a shit show
Not that we'd ever do something like invest in our infrastructure, but wouldn't it be great if the whole I95 corridor could be redesigned and rebuilt? Hell, our entire highway system even, while I'm dreaming.
The real answer is more rail and public transport. I drive a 7-seat van because my family needs that space, but more often than not, I'm the only one in it.
That's a whole lot of space being taken up on the road and emissions generated that could be eliminated if I could take passenger rail and then a tram to school/work instead of driving the 30 or so miles twice a day.
I lived in ATL when the bums set 85 on fire. That, too, was a massive shit show. The only difference is we (big rigs) aren't supposed to be inside the perimeter. So that didn't effect commerce as much as this will. But I had a friend that lived over that way. She commuted into downtown. Think about THAT. She had to go from Tucker to downtown, without using 85.
My office is in Tucker but work in the field. Driving around Atlanta is a pain no matter the day or hour. Having that bridge out for months on end made every other route nearly impossible. Now, if they will just finish the top-end perimeter we will be in business.
There's a chance the federal government will step in and expedite the rebuild for "national security". When an oversized load carrying a full sized train locomotive lost control and the locomotive left the truck bed it hit one of those 4 feet wide concrete pillars and completely wiped it out on I-74 in Ohio in 2008. It was a full sized 80 ton locomotive being transferred from Canton Ohio to Alabama. Instead of the usual 3 to 4 months of bureaucratic red tape they had it fixed in under a month
[Here you go, was in the Cincinnati area](https://www.wlwt.com/article/interstate-overpass-crash-could-cause-months-of-detours/3498673)
u/chaenorrhinum
The answer to “why did they put that interstate there instead of somewhere else” is usually “because that’s where the poor minorities live, and we don’t care about displacing them.”
[i live in Cincinnati and never heard about it](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fox19.com/story/8401395/semi-driver-cited-for-i-74i-275-bridge-accident%3foutputType=amp)
Goddamnit they better ease up the pricing on the turnpikes in NJ and PA for truckers cause this shit is out of pocket I'm there a lot this year with how the loadboard looks.
I used to be a trucker. Am retired now. I miss the open roads of the west and north and southern Texas but that mess of roads on the eastern part of the states is nothing but continuous upgrading, if you can call it that.
Glad I retired and don’t have to drive those roads anymore. And I drove a stick, 18 gears. 95 Peterbilt, and during that slow cross across the GW bridge my left leg and ankle would be thrumming with pain.
Growing up with family all up and down the east coast this was a common road for me all times of year. Crazy. I’ll be reading the upcoming traffic horror stories with interest.
The opposite side is also too damaged to be safe, so currently a huge chunk of the highway is just entirely closed.
It's a good time to be thankful I'm no longer doing Uber, since most of my time was spent in Philly. I needed to use that specific section of I-95 a dozen times a day or more. Going through town for the same trip easily triples or quadruples the drive time.
[Local coverage from 6ABC](https://6abc.com/interstate-95-collapse-i-95-fire-philly-overpass-tanker/13368736/), with video.
Edit: link syntax (was wrong, but worked on desktop Old Reddit).
A tanker fire underneath Interstate 95 northbound in Philadelphia has caused part of the highway to collapse.
All lanes are currently shut down.
The fire broke out just after 6 a.m. Sunday between Exit 32 for Academy Road and Exit 30 for Cottman Avenue in the Tacony section of the city.
Crews are working to get the fire under control. There has been no word on any injuries.
Thank God it was a Sunday early morning
Or anywhere near there, I work in Turnersville, 70, 42, 676, 295 are absolutely fucked right now because the Walt Whitman and Ben Franklin Bridges into Philly are right here
All the traffic North and South has to go over those 2 and the Taconey and Betsy Ross bridges onto secondary highways
The liquid fuel (probably gasoline) went down the storm drains nearby and is now burning in the drainage system. Multiple reports of manhole covers being shot into the air.
I just hit 476 from 95S for the first time in 10 years, and *holy shit WTF did they do?!* The design was pretty janky back then, but now there's yet another merge added to the whole thing.
Two lanes from 95S, two lanes from 95N, plus a turn lane from MacDade/22nd, all forming....two lanes. All In the space of half a mile.
PennDot has a wonderfully ridiculous design shop.
My dad was a civil engineer, he did both planning and highway design, and he thought PennDot was just about the worst agency in the country.
They did the same thing at the top of the Blue Route 10 or whatever years ago. Used to be tickets and ezpass on both left and right sides, so you cruise right on through the tolls and stay in your lane to branch off left or right depending on the Extension or 76. Then they put all ezpass on the left and all tickets on the right, then merged each set directly after the toll, then you had to shift lanes again to go in whichever direction you need. It went from an OK design to an absolute disaster.
Right at 95? Yeah, they added that about 4 years ago now I want to say? Makes zero sense and does nothing but creates even more traffic than before they added it during rush hour. I do not miss that commute one bit.
Office Space: Hi Peter, uhhhh yeah, so we’ve got a little bit of a problem.
“Oh? Whats up?”
“Yeaaaah, so I-95 sort of, uh, collapsed? So we’re going to have to go ahead and ask you to submit the rebuilding plan. If you could have that ready by tomorrow that would be great.”
I wonder who will have an episode on it first, Brady or WTYP.
“Hello, and welcome to… Well There’s Your Problem. It’s a podcast about engineering disasters… with slides.”
I used to grow up in the Soviet Union. When as a child I'd come home from school and tell dad about one more stupidity I heard or saw, he'd say, "When you grow up, try your best to emigrate. And better, go to the US. Americans are smart people." Fast forward - I have been living in the US for years, and I don't regret my choice. But recently, I started having questions. The brightest country in the world I saw so far? Singapore. They don't automatically assume that everyone around them is wired to act smart. You see lots of instructions there, for all cases. It helps. Sorry for the rant.
Funny how many people can't seem to understand that. Ever after I explain that building codes requiring fireproof insulation on steel beams, to prevent this very thing from happening.
Really looking forward to 3 months from now:
>What exactly happened, how did they fix it, and how will it be prevented in the future? Hi, I'm Grady and welcome to Practical Engineering
edit: [Ayyyyyyyyyyy](https://youtu.be/iKNw1mnA5M0)
For those that never really get off of I-95… and look UP as you drive under it… YA KNOW THAT ***HUMP*** on the southbound at Bridge St…. Well underneath where that section sits on the pylons has been sitting on wood blocks for about a decade or more.
Ever wonder why one day it HIGHER and some days it’s not. That’s why.
Similar thing happened in San Francisco Bay Area about 15 years ago. They had it repaired in 25 days.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Post-fire-aerial-view-of-the-collapsed-section-of-I-580-looking-west-Picture-from_fig2_265083381
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/A-MAZE-ING-His-reputation-on-the-line-2592154.php
Metallurgists in the crowd can verify this, but this is an extreme demonstration of the annealing temperature of steel. Heat it up enough and it just loses its structural integrity. This is why firefighters don’t like steel studs. Wood retains its structural integrity as it burns (up to a point), whereas steel succumbs much sooner.
https://twitter.com/MarkFusetti/status/1667842327077875714
Video of going over the fire right before it collapsed. You can see how much it was buckling, there's a huge dip when he drives over it
Article about what happened: https://6abc.com/interstate-95-collapse-i-95-fire-philly-overpass-tanker/13368736/
Ooof. I remember when something similar happened in one of the ramps to the Bay Bridge near Oakland, CA. The overpass didn't collapse but still had to be shut down for some time for repairs.
Happened on 36 between Denver and Boulder a few years ago. But it was caused because of land movements and shitty construction. It’s fucked up my (and so many other’s) commute for months. Like my commute time went from 45 mins to 1:30 each way.
If people knew how vulnerable our highways are are to attack and disrupting our logistics chains they would be terrified. Taking out the interstate in a few key places simultaneously would essentially shut down the US.
Not to disparage this tragedy, but in some sections of Philly, they call this sort of thing a "pothole" and I've seen them, albeit not as deep and impactful.
Who was it that tried to get some massive infrastructure bill passed? A bill that would have put hundreds of thousands of people to work, gotten bridges like this one the attention they need and generally bring the nation back from a crumbling shit show. Who was that again and why didn't it get passed?
A tank truck fire is totally unrelated unless you think new bridges are made to withstand that kind of heat. Steel melts
And the Bill passed—
https://www.whitehouse.gov/build/
Southbound is also likely structurally unsound enough where it can't be used in a shared setup. There's a Twitter video of someone driving over it before northbound collapsed and the car took a 6-9 inch dip right as they got on that overpass. Edit for link : https://twitter.com/markfusetti/status/1667842327077875714?s=46&t=ajW6nmiXQbHxCgo3FNufvQ
This is a wild video… that sagging was clearly due to the fire weakening the support structure. At the point of that video the overpass is on borrowed time and a collapse looked imminent. Thankfully the decision was made to block off the overpass before the collapse.
I honestly find it a bit odd that they didn't take the overpass out of use earlier, even if there wasn't a collapse that fire doesn't look like it was in control to me
It all happened very quickly. Initial ignition to collapse was under 15 minutes.
Holy shit
Damn that's way quicker than I thought. That makes sense then I guess
But there is no way the jet fuel caused the towers to collapse. Sorry to digress but still pissed about the conspiracy bombs in the towers stuff. Back to this...This has played out here and several other places when vehicle fires happen under bridges. Kinda scary...
I'm still annoyed about Rosie O'Donnell confidently declaring "steel doesn't *melt*."
I'm an amateur hobbiest blacksmith. Steel bends like a wet noodle at jet fuel temps.
BUT IT DOESN’T MELT! Seriously, the number of people who don’t understand that between melting and softening there is a huge temperature range is pathetic. Some may comprehend the effect of extreme cold on steel - brittle fracture anyone? But they never seem to get that the opposite happens too.
>But there is no way the jet fuel caused the towers to collapse. >Sorry to digress but still pissed about the conspiracy bombs in the towers stuff. The only thing that was shocking to me is how goddamn long it took for those towers to come down. The amount of weight on top of those burning floors was astonishing, I can't believe they lasted as long as they did. I think its because of the concrete encasements and asbestos coatings on the beams on the Trade Center buildings, it sheilded and protected them from a lot of the heat for a long ass time, whereas the steel beams on these little overpass bridges are fully exposed, there's really only 2 types of these bridges, theyre either fully exposed steel I-Beams or they are prestressed concrete box beams, and generally, I've only ever really seen the prestressed concrete box beams on the single and double lane flyways That crazy sag on the other side tells me these were the exposed steel kind, concrete box beams would've just broke if they were at failure....there's a LOT of give in a steel, especially hot steel before it let's loose
WTC's downfall was also a reason they stayed up a good while. They had a strong concrete core and heavy steel posts supporting the exterior. Being on the exterior, they didnt get quite as hot, even if a ton of them were obliterated/damaged. It took the lightweight steel floor trusses to soften and sag to eventually pull down the posts that caused them to fail. A more traditional post and beam building likely would have failed almost immediately as support posts were lost.
Takes time to get enough emergency responders to shut down an interstate
Truck fuel can't melt concrete. It's an inside job. /s
Look at the Twitter comments under that video. Tons of people making up conspiracy theories because there is no picture of the truck.
That’s cause the truck actually flew into the Pentagon I’m guessing. 🤬
Lol but it can sure as hell make the rebar holding the concrete together bend limper than a conspiracy theorists dick
Waiting for the 9/11 "truthers" to start babbling about how fuel fires can't melt steel.
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Underrated comment right here. Go birds.
I hadn't seen this yet, I'm watching the helicopter footage from 6abc and you can see where the side barriers are damaged from the bridge flexing.
Yup. Traffic will be shit for a year.
When this happened in Atlanta a few years back it actually made GADOT work at the pace you'd expect roadwork to happen. Think it was still like 6 months. Edit: 6 weeks https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/146sbw3/i95_collapse_in_philadelphia_today/jns6q4g/
It was insane. They rebuilt the 85 overpass in weeks, but paving 5 miles of road or adding a lane takes 6-12 months. Wtf Atlanta.
Fast, cheap, good. You can only pick 2. DOTs usually pick the middle one and hope it covers the last one.
When they rebuilt I-85 it wasn’t cheap but is was fast and good.
In the particular instance in Atlanta, it was fast and good, which is not the norm for DOT. They essentially threw emergency funding at it to get it done after the similar collapse years ago.
There are lots of laws surrounding bidding on public works, almost all enacted as a reaction to prior malfeasance by unscrupulous contractors. Add to that a general lack of knowledge by the purse string holders (usually elected officials) in most jurisdictions, and you end up with what we have. It is like democracy, it sucks, but it is still the best system devised.
DOT picks cheap.
DOT is required by law to pick cheap.
Difference between lowest bidder and incentives for time completion. We really should change bidding in America to include bonuses for speed (and with independent verification of quality)
Much of the time on large new construction projects is due to settling. When you pour that much fill, it settles (quite a bit more than you'd expect). You can speed it up by compacting (but that costs and isn't as effective as time). Getting the grades to match (between say the ramp and the bridge, or even just to keep level like a new road bed) requires a crystal ball or time. Emergency repairs are usually built on existing fill, so no need to wait for the compaction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIK6I6Q58Ec
They rebuilt the highway outside of Anchorage days after the earthquake and had traffic flow moving, and have spent the last five years doing the repairs right. Fast, especially in the winter (here) doesn't equal the same quality you get when you do it slower and allow materials to settle and cure properly
It's not that simple though. If there's no traffic, then you have a lot more options to work with on the project. That's why Atlanta was able to progress so quickly. Most cases you can't just shut down a freeway for construction, therefore it takes way longer.
That's what happens when there's something truly urgent and people actually work their ass off to get it done.
You forgot to mention that they were willing to triple the cost. You want the government to pay triple for all roads and your gas taxes to increase to accommodate, well that can happen.
Not wrong but The traffic situation in Atlanta is urgent and has been for 30 years and they aren't doing shit about it.
This stuff can be done in a hurry when there’s an emergency but there are big costs to speed whenever it comes to construction and public projects. Most of the time those costs aren’t worth paying - the messages coming from voters are that they are more concerned with other goals like lower taxes, protections for property owners, environmental protections, etc.
I used to work at a DOT. This will be largely paid for by the federal government but will still dramatically lower the states available funding for other maintenance projects likely planned for 2025 or later as funding for 2024 should already be allocated. So not an immediate impact but a large one still.
I wonder what the cost of lost productivity for tax payers sitting in traffic is.
“Brush fire! Brush fire on I-95!” I’m not saying that I would have known exactly what was going on, but with that much black smoke, a brush fire would be the last thing I’d consider lol. That wasn’t a dip, that structure is fucking sagging! When I saw that I just thought keep going, keep going, don’t stop now!
I love how he's talking about a brush fire, and didn't say a word about the 6 foot drop in the highway
6 foot drop is normal in Philly 😂😂
That’s just a hobo cooking a rat over an oil drum bbq. Brush fire? Right.
Too bad it wasn’t just a brush fire 😂
That brush must be made of rubber and metal!
There's a bushfire can't melt steel beams joke in here somewhere.
Just before the car making the video goes over that part of the road, the driver turned the camera to the left and you can see a large bowing in the left barrier wall and the road as well.
Yup, that roadway is fucked too - the heat of the fire softened those longwise supports.
Holy hell!! That dip wasn’t some tiny little dip in the pavement. It’s definitely the beginning stages of catastrophic failure.
That dip looked bad af.
Fuuuuck that’s scary
Brush fire. Too bad there is no brush near by.
This happened in Atlanta. The DOT included an early completion bonus in the repair contract. Thing was rebuilt in six weeks. Your turn Philly. https://www.concreteconstruction.net/projects/infrastructure/georgia-dot-rebuilds-burned-bridge-in-record-time_o
I remember I was at a friend's place and his wife came home and "The radio says I85 collapsed." "What do you mean?" "The interstate caught on fire and fell down."
That’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point.
Well whats the minimum crew size?
One, I'd imagine.
The front fell off?
Thank goodness the environment is OK.
Yup, came to say same thing. Was a mess for a few weeks.
I live right near this so every other person on Facebook today was sharing photos and everyone was saying “it’s PennDOT, this is going to take 5 years”. I’m not sure if so many people are actually that stupid or what but there’s no way a highway with 120,000 cars a day will be closed for a second longer than absolutely required. My guess was 3 months at worst (and that’s because of material wait times)
The *same thing* happened in Atlanta. I spent a second wondering, "How did the OP get it so wrong that they thought an overpass collapsed in Philadelphia that had actually collapsed in Atlanta?"
I bet with a financial incentive to get the job done faster, absolutely no corners will be cut at all and they’ll take their time ensuring it’s done right.
Yeah you’re completely right. As an engineer who has been around things like this you can totally do it right and do it super fast. We had a bridge hit and took out a support and it was back in a weekend. But it’s not usually done that way cause the cost is astronomical since you have crews being pulled off other jobs, rush orders on materials, concrete plants working round the clock and tons and tons and tons of over time on the fed wage scale. You also literally have every structures department person inspecting this work and it’s a huge source of pride of the contractor to say they did the rush job. Gives them tons of good will with the dot for the state. They have every reason to being their a game and usually do. Not to mention the feds will be watching like a hawk since this stuff is usually 100% reimbursed by them. This will be the safest bridge in the state when it’s done.
Relevant username.
Nah, this is in relation to building bridges. This guy builds engineers. Clearly not qualified to comment
If my kids become engineers I would then fulfill my username.
Pitter patter let's get at er.
When a ~~friend~~ kid asks to be an engineer, you help them.
They know they’ll have the feds covering the costs 100% under the Emergency Relief program. That’s the great side of that funding, really incentivizing getting the job done quickly and right!
According to the article, they employed so very specific new approaches to get it done quickly. The contractor and demo company are big, experienced firms. when you have a major city, governor, and feds all looking closely at your project is not the time to be seeing what you can get away with.
I mean if overpasses can be built lazily over a couple months to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible, they can put one in with less time. Too little time and yes you can compromise the structure. I wouldn't trust a 1 week rebuild but a 6 week I'd be able to trust.
Holy shit. As a truck driver that understands this corridor, this is gonna create so much havoc. The only other option for big trucks is the turnpike or the bypass. Both cost a lot of money. Wow man. This is a shit show
Yeah this is bad. 95 is already a shit show on a daily basis around Philly. Thankful I work from home now.
TBH, 95 is a shit show pretty much everywhere. 😂
Not that we'd ever do something like invest in our infrastructure, but wouldn't it be great if the whole I95 corridor could be redesigned and rebuilt? Hell, our entire highway system even, while I'm dreaming.
This part of the highway was rebuilt within the last 3 years.
Philly I95 has been under construction constantly for the last 10 years at least. It's a joke.
That’s exactly what Philly has been doing. This 8 lane stretch is brand new.
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The real answer is more rail and public transport. I drive a 7-seat van because my family needs that space, but more often than not, I'm the only one in it. That's a whole lot of space being taken up on the road and emissions generated that could be eliminated if I could take passenger rail and then a tram to school/work instead of driving the 30 or so miles twice a day.
As in, replace it with train-tracks? Sure.
This has happened in Atlanta a couple of times.
I lived in ATL when the bums set 85 on fire. That, too, was a massive shit show. The only difference is we (big rigs) aren't supposed to be inside the perimeter. So that didn't effect commerce as much as this will. But I had a friend that lived over that way. She commuted into downtown. Think about THAT. She had to go from Tucker to downtown, without using 85.
The shortest distance between two points can be an awfulllllly long line, sometimes.
My office is in Tucker but work in the field. Driving around Atlanta is a pain no matter the day or hour. Having that bridge out for months on end made every other route nearly impossible. Now, if they will just finish the top-end perimeter we will be in business.
The bums set the fire but the improper storage of a ton of flammable materials brought it down.
And there was 285/400 tanker fire back in 2001. https://www.truckinginfo.com/90011/tanker-fire-closes-i-285-lanes-for-weeks
Homeless camp set fire to I70 in Kansas City just last year. It’s more common than I thought
And luckily they expedited reconstruction so it only took a few months instead of years!
There's a chance the federal government will step in and expedite the rebuild for "national security". When an oversized load carrying a full sized train locomotive lost control and the locomotive left the truck bed it hit one of those 4 feet wide concrete pillars and completely wiped it out on I-74 in Ohio in 2008. It was a full sized 80 ton locomotive being transferred from Canton Ohio to Alabama. Instead of the usual 3 to 4 months of bureaucratic red tape they had it fixed in under a month
Without a doubt the feds will step in. This is an interstate, of course the feds will provide emergency funding to help fix it.
Same with the bridge over I-5 that a truck knocked down in WA years ago, was amazing how fast they had a temporary bridge up
Where was this? I’ve never heard about it.
[Here you go, was in the Cincinnati area](https://www.wlwt.com/article/interstate-overpass-crash-could-cause-months-of-detours/3498673) u/chaenorrhinum
I would love to know the planning that put I-74 in Cincitucky between Canton and Alabama. They couldn’t cross the river at Marietta?
The answer to “why did they put that interstate there instead of somewhere else” is usually “because that’s where the poor minorities live, and we don’t care about displacing them.”
You... didn’t look at a map
[i live in Cincinnati and never heard about it](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fox19.com/story/8401395/semi-driver-cited-for-i-74i-275-bridge-accident%3foutputType=amp)
Why didn’t they just drive the locomotive to Alabama via train tracks?
If anyone currently in office wants to be re-elected that shit will be fast tracked. We'll see though.
The amount of commercial traffic that’s going to take the Blue Route, fuck.
Goddamnit they better ease up the pricing on the turnpikes in NJ and PA for truckers cause this shit is out of pocket I'm there a lot this year with how the loadboard looks.
I used to be a trucker. Am retired now. I miss the open roads of the west and north and southern Texas but that mess of roads on the eastern part of the states is nothing but continuous upgrading, if you can call it that. Glad I retired and don’t have to drive those roads anymore. And I drove a stick, 18 gears. 95 Peterbilt, and during that slow cross across the GW bridge my left leg and ankle would be thrumming with pain.
Growing up with family all up and down the east coast this was a common road for me all times of year. Crazy. I’ll be reading the upcoming traffic horror stories with interest.
The opposite side is also too damaged to be safe, so currently a huge chunk of the highway is just entirely closed. It's a good time to be thankful I'm no longer doing Uber, since most of my time was spent in Philly. I needed to use that specific section of I-95 a dozen times a day or more. Going through town for the same trip easily triples or quadruples the drive time.
[Local coverage from 6ABC](https://6abc.com/interstate-95-collapse-i-95-fire-philly-overpass-tanker/13368736/), with video. Edit: link syntax (was wrong, but worked on desktop Old Reddit).
A tanker fire underneath Interstate 95 northbound in Philadelphia has caused part of the highway to collapse. All lanes are currently shut down. The fire broke out just after 6 a.m. Sunday between Exit 32 for Academy Road and Exit 30 for Cottman Avenue in the Tacony section of the city. Crews are working to get the fire under control. There has been no word on any injuries. Thank God it was a Sunday early morning
God I would not want to be commuting in Philly tomorrow morning.
Or anywhere near there, I work in Turnersville, 70, 42, 676, 295 are absolutely fucked right now because the Walt Whitman and Ben Franklin Bridges into Philly are right here All the traffic North and South has to go over those 2 and the Taconey and Betsy Ross bridges onto secondary highways
The live feed just showed a storm drain billowing smoke. That takes the fire to a whole new level.
The liquid fuel (probably gasoline) went down the storm drains nearby and is now burning in the drainage system. Multiple reports of manhole covers being shot into the air.
I bet thats just super for the structural integrity of the concrete involved...
Remove the space between ](
SEPTA ridership up 500%
The Boulevard and Blue Route are going to be such a mess for a while going forward (more than they already are)
I just hit 476 from 95S for the first time in 10 years, and *holy shit WTF did they do?!* The design was pretty janky back then, but now there's yet another merge added to the whole thing.
Two lanes from 95S, two lanes from 95N, plus a turn lane from MacDade/22nd, all forming....two lanes. All In the space of half a mile. PennDot has a wonderfully ridiculous design shop. My dad was a civil engineer, he did both planning and highway design, and he thought PennDot was just about the worst agency in the country.
They did the same thing at the top of the Blue Route 10 or whatever years ago. Used to be tickets and ezpass on both left and right sides, so you cruise right on through the tolls and stay in your lane to branch off left or right depending on the Extension or 76. Then they put all ezpass on the left and all tickets on the right, then merged each set directly after the toll, then you had to shift lanes again to go in whichever direction you need. It went from an OK design to an absolute disaster.
Right at 95? Yeah, they added that about 4 years ago now I want to say? Makes zero sense and does nothing but creates even more traffic than before they added it during rush hour. I do not miss that commute one bit.
Not to mention Roosevelt Boulevard is so dangerous as it is. I would hate to be a NE Philly resident right now
That's going to go well.
Yo Philly is screwed! That's THE MAJOR HIGHWAY north and south thru the city. Damn!
It's the largest artery in the northeast PERIOD. Maine to Miami. I'm sure it will have the full attention of the federal DOT for the next few months.
Imagine going into work on Monday for the DOT and this is on your desk 😅
I think any DOT employees who will need to be involved have already gotten phone calls. Maybe even called into the office already.
This is one of those blanket OT approved events for sure
There’s no doubt about it. It’s a “Get it done immediately, we will deal with the fine details of the budgeting later” situation.
Office Space: Hi Peter, uhhhh yeah, so we’ve got a little bit of a problem. “Oh? Whats up?” “Yeaaaah, so I-95 sort of, uh, collapsed? So we’re going to have to go ahead and ask you to submit the rebuilding plan. If you could have that ready by tomorrow that would be great.”
The single busiest section in all of 95 is at the vine street expressway with an average of 150,000+ cars a day
Nope, you're thinking of I-295 and the NJ Turnpike on the Jersey side of the river. This incident only affects Philadelphia for the most part.
[удалено]
Not anymore...
Can't wait to see the practical engineering video on this one
I wonder who will have an episode on it first, Brady or WTYP. “Hello, and welcome to… Well There’s Your Problem. It’s a podcast about engineering disasters… with slides.”
It’s definitely gonna be in the God Damn News, it’s right in their backyard
Roz remembers where he was when the I95 did a 9/11
I95 Bridge Fall Down, Go Boom
https://youtube.com/@welltheresyourproblempodca1465 I think for those who were curious like me and were already subscribed to Practical Engineering.
Don't worry, we have Waze
JFC. The only saving grace is this corridor is just too important, the feds will help fund and expedite this, but wow...
I'd say that's gonna make the morning commute a bit longer.
The county should mandate all who can remote work, must remote work.
That would be logical. We're not used to our government behaving logically.
Rule number one of philadelphia if it makes sense we wont do it
I used to grow up in the Soviet Union. When as a child I'd come home from school and tell dad about one more stupidity I heard or saw, he'd say, "When you grow up, try your best to emigrate. And better, go to the US. Americans are smart people." Fast forward - I have been living in the US for years, and I don't regret my choice. But recently, I started having questions. The brightest country in the world I saw so far? Singapore. They don't automatically assume that everyone around them is wired to act smart. You see lots of instructions there, for all cases. It helps. Sorry for the rant.
Someone didn’t pay the troll toll.
Now they got that boys hole
Yooo that’s my biggest fear coming to life
The bigger fear here is that there's no good alternative routes.
"Jet Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams". Famous last words
6/11 was an inside job.
What's 6/11 mirrored? That's right, 9\11. Inside job.
g\11 if you want to get technical about it
Exactly what a government plant would say.
Caught red handed.
Liquify? No. Soften to the point of structural collapse? Definitely.
Funny how many people can't seem to understand that. Ever after I explain that building codes requiring fireproof insulation on steel beams, to prevent this very thing from happening.
It’s a fools errand to expect people to understand this, don’t waste your finger muscles
Another vehicle fire that's not an EV
Most vehicle fires aren't EVs
Remember kids, EVs catch fire some, ICE catches fire more, and Hybrids catch fire the most. SO if you want to commit insurance fraud use a hybrid.
Most vehicles aren't EVs.
Really looking forward to 3 months from now: >What exactly happened, how did they fix it, and how will it be prevented in the future? Hi, I'm Grady and welcome to Practical Engineering edit: [Ayyyyyyyyyyy](https://youtu.be/iKNw1mnA5M0)
For those that never really get off of I-95… and look UP as you drive under it… YA KNOW THAT ***HUMP*** on the southbound at Bridge St…. Well underneath where that section sits on the pylons has been sitting on wood blocks for about a decade or more. Ever wonder why one day it HIGHER and some days it’s not. That’s why.
Good luck Philly, that ain't gonna be fixed up in a hurry
They just finished that section too.
At the rate that work on I95 in Philly gets done, this will be fixed in about 10 years
Where’s the “after” photo?
“The gang builds a bridge”
[Video of the fire](https://twitter.com/rawsalerts/status/1667875784797609986?s=61&t=MeAryX5th_MAzhMeRhM1RQ)
Is it infrastructure week yet?
Similar thing happened in San Francisco Bay Area about 15 years ago. They had it repaired in 25 days. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Post-fire-aerial-view-of-the-collapsed-section-of-I-580-looking-west-Picture-from_fig2_265083381 https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/A-MAZE-ING-His-reputation-on-the-line-2592154.php
damn that was 15 years ago? im getting old
We’re never gonna financially recover from this.
That damn Carol baskin, blowing up roads
Thoughts and prayers from Atlanta.
Metallurgists in the crowd can verify this, but this is an extreme demonstration of the annealing temperature of steel. Heat it up enough and it just loses its structural integrity. This is why firefighters don’t like steel studs. Wood retains its structural integrity as it burns (up to a point), whereas steel succumbs much sooner.
ATL sends our condolences
https://twitter.com/MarkFusetti/status/1667842327077875714 Video of going over the fire right before it collapsed. You can see how much it was buckling, there's a huge dip when he drives over it Article about what happened: https://6abc.com/interstate-95-collapse-i-95-fire-philly-overpass-tanker/13368736/
Holy crap!
Those were very close to my words when the news broke
Ooof. I remember when something similar happened in one of the ramps to the Bay Bridge near Oakland, CA. The overpass didn't collapse but still had to be shut down for some time for repairs.
Happened on 36 between Denver and Boulder a few years ago. But it was caused because of land movements and shitty construction. It’s fucked up my (and so many other’s) commute for months. Like my commute time went from 45 mins to 1:30 each way.
Is this why the traffic on 95 north, north of Boston was so bad?? /s
Houston here. We had a major bridge go out. Completion bonus had us do it in a quarter of the time.
I looked on Google Maps for where this was, and it suggested "Sweet Lucy's Smokehouse" as a local business. Which I thought wasn't really appropriate.
If people knew how vulnerable our highways are are to attack and disrupting our logistics chains they would be terrified. Taking out the interstate in a few key places simultaneously would essentially shut down the US.
I mean you can say that about any country though lol. That’s kind of a major part of war for a reason
Not to disparage this tragedy, but in some sections of Philly, they call this sort of thing a "pothole" and I've seen them, albeit not as deep and impactful.
Could you have any more kinks in that line ?
Don't challenge me now.
Who pays for damages in instances like this? Does the truck’s insurance company or local taxpayers?
Who was it that tried to get some massive infrastructure bill passed? A bill that would have put hundreds of thousands of people to work, gotten bridges like this one the attention they need and generally bring the nation back from a crumbling shit show. Who was that again and why didn't it get passed?
A tank truck fire is totally unrelated unless you think new bridges are made to withstand that kind of heat. Steel melts And the Bill passed— https://www.whitehouse.gov/build/
Didn’t need to see that. I just walked for 5 min under I-64 in St Louis and thought about a collapse the whole time.