The Schuylkill's open again. Drenching rain sent a wall of water, mud an muck down onto the highway near the Conshohocken curve Sunday, closing it for most of the day.
The storm was so bad that it closed parts of the expressway for hours as motorists were diverted or stranded by the messy, muddy floodwater.
Bad flooding was reported along I-76 near the Conshohocken curve Sunday morning. The high water flowed over the concrete barriers and onto the roadway, according to PennDOT spokesman Gene Blaum.
The eastbound lanes from Conshohocken to Belmont were shut down at 11 a.m. Twenty minutes later, all the westbound lanes were closed along the same stretch.
Some traffic cams showed cars stalled and some partially submerged. Crews were on the scene cleaning mud and debris left on the roadway after the flooding. Part of the problem was a blocked storm drain, Blaum said.
Both the eastbound and westbound lanes were reopened by 7:30 p.m.
Estimates put the rain totals at one to almost four and half inches in just one hour, according to the National Weather Service. Radar estimates of three to six inches of rain fell west of Philadelphia in two to three hours, according to The Weather Channel's meteorologist John Desjardins.
