The collapsed section of Interstate 95 is set on reopen in two weeksPennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told reporters on Saturday.
Shapiro made the announcement at a press conference after a helicopter tour of the collapse site with President Joe Biden.
“I can now talk a bit more about the progress we’re making,” Shapiro said. “We’ll have I-95 reopened within the next two weeks. We’re going to get traffic moving again, thanks to the amazing work being done here by these union workers.”
Biden, who was joined at the site by Governor Shapiro, Mayor Jim Kenney, Sens Bob Casey and John Fetterman, Rep. Brendan Boyle and other officials, said the reopening of the collapsed road was the biggest country priority.
“I told the governor that there is no bigger project right now in the country as far as I’m concerned,” Biden said. “I’m asking my team to literally move heaven and earth to do this as quickly as possible.”
Biden pledged more federal funding for the project in the coming weeks, noting that Pennsylvania has already received $8.9 billion from the bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021.
Earlier this month, a section of Highway 95 collapsed after a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline crashed underneath and burst into flames, authorities said.
The police said the driver lost control of the truck as he tried to go around the curve of an exit ramp on the north side of the freeway. The truck overturned and landed on its side, “starting a fire,” Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said during a briefing the day after the collapse.
The heat from the fire weakened the I-beams supporting the overpass, causing it to collapse, Carroll said.
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