Crack Is Fixed On Philly Highway Stretch

Grateful Thursday morning commuters are rolling on a three-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia that's been closed for more than two days for repairs.

Rush hour motorists had been fighting massive traffic jams on area surface streets as crews worked to shore up a fractured concrete support pillar on the major East Coast artery.

Officials had hoped to reopen the highway at midnight, but Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman Gene Blaum says extra time was taken to beef up the repairs.

Blaum says eight steel plates known as "stiffeners" were welded to the beams under the elevated highway. Then Thursday morning, sixteen jacks were used to lift the load of the elevated highway deck off the damaged concrete pillar.

Heavy salt trucks were driven across the shored up area, then parked on it to test the stability of the repair under a load. PennDOT supervisor Nick Martino gave the word to reopen I-95 about 6:30 a.m.

The road was closed about midnight Monday, just hours after the fractured concrete column was discovered by structural engineer Peter Kim.

Kim is an employee of Specialty Engineering, a Bristol consulting firm that does contract work for PennDOT.

He had inspected the column twice in the last three years and its condition had been relatively stable. He saw Monday that the crack had dramatically widened since he checked it in December. He took pictures of the crumbling concrete with his cell phone and called PennDOT immediately.

A two-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia was shut down early Tuesday, backing up commuter traffic for miles, as workers began emergency repairs on a crack in a concrete support pillar beneath the major northeast corridor.

Repairs to the crack required closure of both northbound and southbound lanes of the highway north of the city's central business district, Blaum said Monday.

"Obviously, we feel it could compromise the strength of that section of the highway," Blaum said.

The section of the interstate carries about 190,000 vehicles a day, making the repair "a major undertaking," he said.

Traffic jammed at exit points as motorists were sent on detours around the closed area during the morning commute Tuesday. The stretch of I-95 was shut down after midnight.