The news is usually pretty good, but in this case, I've heard reports from more than one source and none quite say how they fixed the I95 overpass in Philadelphia in only 12 days.
Am I right that it is, at least for now, no longer an overpass? That they built a retaining wall across the street where the truck burned, then filled in the opening that the bridge used to go over, so that they did't have to build a new bridge, only pave a road over the fill?
That Cottman Avenue no longer goes under I-95?
They had a live camera but by the time I looked the answer was no longer apparent.
I don't think most viewers of the news realize how clever, how outside the box, this was.
Sometime in the 1980's on US36 (aka the Boulder Turnpike) two railroad trains collided headon (due to a scheduling screw-up) right under an overpass which was also on a curve in the tracks. The resulting fire caused the westbound span to melt. (There were 2 deaths on the train crew.)
What the State did to allow traffic was quickly pave 2 ground level RR crossings, with gates, to allow traffic to go around the site. For the several weeks it took to repair the overpass bridge, and with numerous warning signs, motorists still managed to have collisions at the grade crossings.
That was when 36 was 2 lanes each way, I think it's 3 now.
I was right. I"m not that smart, but I had seen one video that showed big trucks with recycled glass showing up and dumping the glass on the road. It didnt' say what it would be used for but that part I figured out. They must have been plannig to push the glass into the opening in the road. And I found a video called "HOW did they reopen in 12 days" or something like that. Most of it was about why it fell down but the end was about how they filled it in and paved it, easier than building a bridge. He said the glass is like sand.
3 lanes in each direction are open but there is room to rebuild 2 lanes in each direction, and after that's done, they will dig out the glass and build bridges for the 3 lanes that are paved now. They did something like th is when they widened an xway I drive under a couple times a week. The overpass was already wide enough (they'd planned ahead) but I guess the road was bad because they built outside lanes, then tore down the inside lanes. Never stopped traffic above or below afaik.
Meanwhile the bridge that leads to my n'hood has been closed for two years. The county says the contractor hasn't filed the right forms, and last I heard, the contractor says, Yes, I did. The silt projection is missing, and maybe others. And the people who own the bridge don't give a darn. :-( Admittedly, they can't just fill in because instead of a bridge over a street, it's a bridge over a stream and then the water would go everywhere.
Amazing. They filled the open area so they could pave over and meantime, they will re-build the bridge.
It is a small inconvenience to locals to have Cottman Ave closed there. You can go to another street north or south of it to get to State Road, adds maybe a mile.
This is not far from where Rudy had his Four Seasons news conference a few years ago Just about a block away.
dannyb recalls watching the truck mounted jet engines they used to clear the runway of snow and ice over at Chicago's Lincoln National Airport, as documented in the film "Airplane" (1970)
"State police vehicles would continue to escort trucks carrying materials to speed them to the construction site, he said." They didn't miss a trick.
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Although calling the fill-in material "foam" glass doesn't inspire confidence. I wonder if it's like memory foam and the tires will sink in until they are comfortable.
"Officials and engineers said that would also help keep the the temporary bridge from damaging the relatively delicate clay pipes underneath the Tacony soil as it settles." What are these clay pipes?
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