PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — To the relief of drivers in Tacony and throughout the region, PennDOT has fully reopened the rebuilt bridge on I-95 at Cottman Avenue that was damaged in a fiery crash last June.
No more detours. After nearly a year of reconstruction, I-95 at Cottman Avenue is reopening. At a ceremony Thursday, Buckley Construction president Rob Buckley says his crews worked 12-hour days to rebuild the bridge.
“They wanted this thing accomplished within a year,” he said. “Well, really this is a two-year job. We were able to compress it to one year.”
The job cost $20 million in mostly federal money to complete.
While PennDOT and elected officials celebrated the reopening, they also remembered Nate Moody, the driver who died in the crash. The new off-ramp has a high-friction surface, to help vehicles maintain control around curves.
Dave McNulty, delivery driver for PPG Paints, says with the Cottman Avenue off-ramp from northbound 95 closed, he’s had to find alternate routes for the last year.
“It makes it a little longer to travel to your destination, or to your orders, or to where you’ve got to go to,” he said. “But this really does make a big difference.”
The southbound lanes are open now. The northbound lanes will reopen Friday morning.