PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Last Thursday, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, the Vine Street Expressway was a river.
But by Saturday, it was bone dry, much to the amazement of almost everyone who saw the volume of water on the road.
Highway maintenance manager Justin Galbreath was on call Thursday morning when he received a pump failure alarm at 5:15 a.m. The pump on the west side of I-676 normally handles even the heaviest of rain.
But this was something new.
"The [Schuylkill] River got to a level we hadn’t seen before and flowed up the 24th Street ramp. It was coming in so quickly, the pump station couldn’t keep up and it disrupted the circuitry in the control room, and then we were left with almost 30 million gallons of water," Galbreath explained about a pump that was under 15 feet of water.
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"It’s daunting seeing that much water and seeing it in a place where it’s not supposed to be. It was scary."
With not only the stress of the moment, but the looming crowds expected a few days later for Made in America adding to the pressure, Galbreath summoned pumps from anywhere he could find them. He reached out to contractors, other PennDOT regions, other state agencies.
He eventually mustered eight pumps of various sizes, some hauled in from Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre, constantly running, being moved as needed, that together could pump a million gallons an hour out of the road.
"As the water level went down, we would move the pumps down, make sure we had enough hose to pump it back out to the river so it was constantly pumping, moving," Galbreath said.
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"There were people who showed up Thursday afternoon and probably didn’t put a shovel down till Saturday night. There were a lot of people there with a lot of experience and everyone was working toward the same goal."
Galbreath estimates there were 100-200 people involved in the operation, which also involved clearing debris, restoring equipment and inspecting the road.
Now, after a 48-hour miracle, the road’s in better shape than ever. The pump is operational and all the pipes beneath the roadway have been flushed. There was no structural damage.
“That’s always the goal for us, to make sure that we’re providing the service to the residents of Pennsylvania that they ask of us, that these roads are open, that they’re passable and in good condition," said Galbreath.
He told KYW Newsradio that PennDOT has started discussing how to make the freeway more resilient, but he believes the interaction of Ida with other storm fronts was unique, and another Vine Street Canal situation is unlikely.
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