June 14, 20232 yr 16 minutes ago, mikemack8 said: Interesting. How do they keep the fill "in place" and solid enough to pave over and support the thousands of pounds of weight that will go over it every day? Set up temporary shoring. Basically a temporary retaining wall to hold the fill in place.
June 14, 20232 yr 2 hours ago, Procus said: I don't claim to be an expert on this, but there were statements to that effect initially. And if you google Temporary Bridge, alot comes up, for instance, this In Arizona, they built an overpass over I-40 in a weekend. There may be different dynamics at play, like knowing a couple years ahead of time you were building it, preparing off-site, and so on, but they got it done in-place in a couple days. I tried to find the article or video, but couldn't. Maybe I got the Interstate wrong. States like Arizona and Texas take their highways seriously, and some states around here could learn from them.
June 14, 20232 yr 19 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said: I was wondering about that. It appears to be that by mixing in other materials (glass, etc.) into the backfill it's a method to prevent the erosion of the soil. I'm not a civil engineer (did some ME with my CS, but never CE; those guys weren't "real" engineers lol), but there's different kinds of fill material that can be used to build up depending on the situation. So this isn't unprecedented, and the material appears to be well suited for this. They may also throw in some reinforced median barriers or something at the bottom to help mitigate any spreading (which might reduce the profile of the road), and I would certainly hope they'd be monitoring the fill to ensure it's not creeping. From what I can tell the commuter impact is going to be the loss of the Cottman exit on I-95N. Yeah the Cottman exit is going to have to be closed for a while. It won't reopen until the excavation is out, and that won't happen until you get to the last stage of the bridge construction.
June 14, 20232 yr 2 hours ago, Procus said: What is it right now? It won't be as bad a nightmare as the current situation. A far better situation than trying to use 2 lane temporary bridges. With the solution they are going with now, I-95 will be open to 3 lanes in each direction while they re-build the bridge. You could have more lanes open, but then it would take longer to reconstruct. You can't have I-95 go down to 2 lanes in each direction for an extended period of time, which is what using a temporary 2 lane bridge would require.
June 14, 20232 yr 26 minutes ago, xzmattzx said: In Arizona, they built an overpass over I-40 in a weekend. There may be different dynamics at play, like knowing a couple years ahead of time you were building it, preparing off-site, and so on, but they got it done in-place in a couple days. I tried to find the article or video, but couldn't. Maybe I got the Interstate wrong. States like Arizona and Texas take their highways seriously, and some states around here could learn from them. A very cool project, but not really applicable to this scenario. That was the construction of a local road bridge over the highway. Not the construction of a highway mainline bridge. Also, it wasn't built over the weekend. It was a 17 day closure of Forth street, which was preceded by months of overnight single lane restrictions and two full weekend closures. You're also taking about a 2 lane bridge, in an area where they had tons of room to build the bridge off to the side, and then slide it into place. That type of space does not exist at the I-95 bridge over Cottman Ave .
June 14, 20232 yr 14 minutes ago, xzmattzx said: In Arizona, they built an overpass over I-40 in a weekend. There may be different dynamics at play, like knowing a couple years ahead of time you were building it, preparing off-site, and so on, but they got it done in-place in a couple days. I tried to find the article or video, but couldn't. Maybe I got the Interstate wrong. States like Arizona and Texas take their highways seriously, and some states around here could learn from them. I’d assume the bridges are built a little differently in northern states because of the weather. Also F Texas.
June 14, 20232 yr 7 minutes ago, Phillyterp85 said: Yeah the Cottman exit is going to have to be closed for a while. It won't reopen until the excavation is out, and that won't happen until you get to the last stage of the bridge construction. my wife said the Bridge street exit is also closed for some kind of construction, not sure if that's still true (she barely drives anywhere so I have no idea how she came by this info lol) but if so missing both exits is going to strain on, what, Aramingo and Academy exits?
June 14, 20232 yr 14 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said: my wife said the Bridge street exit is also closed for some kind of construction, not sure if that's still true (she barely drives anywhere so I have no idea how she came by this info lol) but if so missing both exits is going to strain on, what, Aramingo and Academy exits? Yes the Bridge Street interchange reconstruction that began at the beginning of the year. Yes, look like going NB everyone will have to get off at Aramingo Ave. And then the next available exit will be Exit 32, Lindon Ave. Going SB you'll still be able to get off Exit 30/cottman Ave, and then hop back on I-95 at the Tacony bridge, which is the current situation.
June 14, 20232 yr 3 hours ago, Phillyterp85 said: There's nothing really atypical about this off-ramp. It was just a tragic, freak luck bad accident. Based on the surveillance video, it looks like he was going a bit fast for the ramp and flipped the rig. So not luck related. The guy F'd up, lost his life, and impacted the lives of 1000's of people. Had my CDL-A for years. You don't F around with on and off ramps, especially when you're carrying fuel.
June 14, 20232 yr Just now, Outlaw said: Based on the surveillance video, it looks like he was going a bit fast for the ramp and flipped the rig. So not luck related. The guy F'd up, lost his life, and impacted the lives of 1000's of people. Yes, he was definitely going to fast to overturn the truck like that. I meant "bad luck" as it relates to the roadway design and safety. If a person is driving too fast for the condition of the roadway, there's not too much you can do from a roadway design standpoint.
June 14, 20232 yr 1 minute ago, Phillyterp85 said: Yes, he was definitely going to fast to overturn the truck like that. I meant "bad luck" as it relates to the roadway design and safety. If a person is driving too fast for the condition of the roadway, there's not too much you can do from a roadway design standpoint. Yep. I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but I'd be willing to bet money he was a local or regional driver who took this ramp all the time, got careless, F'd around, and found out.
June 14, 20232 yr Has anyone taken the detour yet? I have a few road trips coming up. My thought is the detour roads in the North East are going to be total gridlock. I'm thinking if you are going anywhere south of PA along the 95 corridor from north of the crash site, it'd be better to just take the Turnpike to 476 and link back up with 95 south of the city that way.
June 14, 20232 yr 3 minutes ago, Gannan said: Has anyone taken the detour yet? I have a few road trips coming up. My thought is the detour roads in the North East are going to be total gridlock. I'm thinking if you are going anywhere south of PA along the 95 corridor from north of the crash site, it'd be better to just take the Turnpike to 476 and link back up with 95 south of the city that way. that way will be packed as well, but will still probably be the best option.
June 14, 20232 yr Good thing this happened early on a Sunday morning. It could have been so much worse with loss of life. We were coming down from NYC when I saw the signs on the NJ turnpike saying find an alternate route. It didn't affect us as we were not going near the city, got off at 276. I thought even there might be bad, but it wasn't at all. A longer way around but yeah, the Turnpike to 476 is a good option. My boss lives in the Northeast and why he commutes all the way out here I have no idea. When the gas prices shot up, he started working 1 day remote. He's been here twice this week. His hours have changed. He gets here around 5:30-6 am and is out by 2 pm. I'm going to Billy Joel Friday. I really don't want to drive 76 to Manayunk to meet my relative. I'll be nowhere near this mess; I may just do City Line. I don't know. I should be well ahead of any gridlock. We will be doing public trans down to the Linc.
June 14, 20232 yr 3 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said: I re watch the show a lot and the entertainment value never decreases.
June 14, 20232 yr 5 hours ago, Phillyterp85 said: A far better situation than trying to use 2 lane temporary bridges. With the solution they are going with now, I-95 will be open to 3 lanes in each direction while they re-build the bridge. You could have more lanes open, but then it would take longer to reconstruct. You can't have I-95 go down to 2 lanes in each direction for an extended period of time, which is what using a temporary 2 lane bridge would require. Right now, there are too many businesses that need an open 95, even with the delays. It's an interstate corridor that needs to be kept open, even if under compromised conditions.
June 14, 20232 yr 3 hours ago, toolg said: Get your popcorn ready! I think it's a great idea. It'll discourage slackers
June 14, 20232 yr 6 hours ago, Phillyterp85 said: That temporary bridge is two lanes wide. I-95 in this section is 5 lanes wide on the NB side, 4 lanes wide on the SB side. That makes a huge difference with regards to the loading capacity. But the fill solution makes much more sense than even a temp bridge. 3 lanes open in each direction, even with slower traffic, gets the artery open again
June 15, 20232 yr 2 hours ago, Procus said: But the fill solution makes much more sense than even a temp bridge. 3 lanes open in each direction, even with slower traffic, gets the artery open again Exactly. They could probably even go 4 lanes in each direction if they wanted. But that would result in a longer construction period for building the new bridge. FWIW When they originally built this bridge back in the 2010s, a 3 lane staging operation is how they handled it.
June 15, 20232 yr Thinking about it some more, it probably makes most sense to fill in cottman Ave completely and reopen to the full capacity 11 lanes. It’s going to take some time to fabricate the beams. So might as well fully reopen I-95 while we wait for the beams to get finished, especially being in the summer.
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