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12-06-2023
PHILADELPHIA: Part of Interstate 95 in northeast Philadelphia was shut down in both directions early on Sunday morning after a tanker truck believed to be carrying gasoline caught fire, causing part of the highway to collapse, officials said.
The collapse left the authorities scrambling for ways to ease the commute on Monday morning as well as for weeks to come and assessing what options they had to make up for the loss of this section of busy highway, which carries about 160,000 vehicles daily.
A tanker driver was on an off-ramp of Route I-95 North when a crash or other incident sparked a fire below the highway lanes, which run overhead, said Brad Rudolph, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
“That structure quickly collapsed with the heat of the fire as big as it was,” he said. “And then the southbound structure was also shut down because it was compromised by the fire as well.”
At a news conference on Sunday afternoon, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said that at least one vehicle remained trapped beneath the collapsed roadway and that officials were still working to identify “any individual or individuals” who may have been caught in the fire and the collapse, which happened around 6:20 a.m.
He described the scene on the highway as one of “remarkable devastation,” adding, “I found myself, you know, thanking the Lord that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died.”
The northbound portion of I-95 had completely collapsed, and the southbound side was not structurally sound, Mr. Shapiro said, noting that it would likely take “some number of months” before the highway was repaired.
Shapiro said he would issue a disaster declaration on Monday to expedite that process, and had been assured by the federal transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, that whatever resources were needed would be provided.
Rudolph, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman, said that the cause of the fire was still being investigated but that nothing so far suggested it was intentional. (Int’l News Desk)
