Federal and state officials gathered along I-95 once again this year on Monday morning -- at the site where the roadway collapsed in June -- to tout the reopening of the highway as traffic was set to shift from temporary roadway onto new interstate highway.
As the Tuesday morning commute got underway, northbound traffic was flowing over a new structure at Cottman Avenue in the Mayfair neighborhood. By Thursday morning the southbound lanes were also open.
In touting the speedy redevelopment of that section of the highway -- which was reopened to traffic thanks to a temporarily-filled roadway just 12 days after it initially collapsed -- Mike Carroll, secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, thanked the people of Philadelphia and Southeastern Pennsylvania for their support.
"I know the challenges have been stark, when it comes to the movement of 160,000 vehicles a day here in Northeast Philadelphia," said Carroll. "But the resiliency and the willingness to accept the challenge that we have and embrace that challenge and success has been unbelievably supportive in the advancement of this project."
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The traffic shift, which took place early Tuesday morning northbound, is happening ahead of schedule, he said.
Drivers along I-95 in Northeast Philadelphia, have been utilizing a temporary roadway at the Cottman Avenue off-ramp after a tanker crash on June 11 caused a bridge there to collapse.
Immediately after the incident, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro -- and other officials -- visited the site and detailed plans to repair the roadway.
On Monday night, traffic on northbound I-95 was reduced to two lanes, from 9 to 11 p.m., then from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., traffic was reduced to just one lane through the Cottman Avenue interchange in order to shift the flow of traffic. On Wednesday evening in Thursday morning, Nov. 8, the same process was repeated on the southbound side of the roadway.
"We will get it done as quickly as we can," Carroll said.
After traffic was shifted, Carroll said that the temporary roadway will be removed and work will begin to build the permanent structure in its place and reopen the Cottman Avenue off-ramp.
Also, he said that the recycled glass aggregate that was used to create the temporary roadway will be reused in other projects. PennDOT noted that this could be used on other projects along the I-95 corridor, including the I-95 capping project at Penn’s Landing.
Overall, he said the project has cost more the $20 million -- $4 million for the temporary roadway and $18 million for the permanent roadway unveiled Monday.
He was unsure what next steps of the process might cost.
"We made a commitment to get this roadway reopened as soon as possible and that's a good investment," Carroll said.
PennDOT officials said that the entire new structure -- plus reconstruction of the lower portion of the Cottman Avenue off-ramp -- is expected to be completed and the northbound interchange reopened in 2024.
Though Carroll warned things could be impacted by weather conditions.
For more information on the permanent reconstruction project, visit PennDOT’s I-95 Cottman Avenue Updates page.
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