PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Lane restrictions take effect this week on I-95 at Cottman Avenue as PennDOT shifts traffic to the new section of the bridge built since the fiery summer collapse.
Repairs started quickly after the fatal tanker crash in June, and since I-95 reopened, six lanes of traffic have been flowing on the temporary inner lanes while the bridges carrying the outer lanes were rebuilt. With that work now finished, traffic is being shifted to the new outer bridges.
The three northbound lanes will shift Monday night. From 9 to 11 p.m., northbound I-95 will be reduced to two lanes, then to one lane from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. The same goes for the southbound lanes starting Wednesday night. Then, the glass aggregate fill will be removed and the inner bridge rebuilt.
Depending on the weather, the entire project — with four lanes in each direction and the Cottman off-ramp reopened — should be finished in early 2024.
“Without being the groundhog here in Philadelphia, it’s really hard to predict what the weather’s going to be, and so I’m going to say a matter of months,” said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll.
Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt said he’s amazed at the progress since June, when a fatal gasoline tanker crash damaged the bridge and the northbound off-ramp.
“We’re not all the way there yet, but we’re to a place that I never would have thought of on that first Sunday when I showed up here,” he said.
Carroll said crews worked 12-hour days, seven days a week to get the outer bridges rebuilt as quickly as they did.