Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said on Saturday he was “confident” the portion of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia that collapsed last weekend will open within the next two weeks.
“We are going to get traffic moving again,” Mr. Shapiro said on Twitter, crediting an “all hands on deck approach.” Initially, he had said he expected the repairs to take months.
The crash on Sunday of a truck hauling gasoline led to a fire that left a section of the northbound side of the highway in ruins and the southbound section so badly damaged that it was demolished this week.
Local officials are working with the federal government to rebuild the roadway.
Before the collapse, that stretch of the highway, in northeast Philadelphia near the Delaware River, was used by about 160,000 vehicles a day, officials said, though much of the interstate traffic traveling through the region already bypassed Philadelphia using the New Jersey Turnpike, which runs roughly parallel to I-95 east of the river.
Persons:
Josh Shapiro, ” Mr, Shapiro
Organizations:
Pennsylvania, Twitter, New, New Jersey Turnpike
Locations:
Philadelphia, Delaware, New Jersey