PHILADELPHIA (AP) — U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promised Tuesday to help repair the East Coast’s main north-south highway as quickly as possible and said that the destruction of a section of I-95 will likely raise shipping costs because truckers must now travel longer, pricier routes.
Visiting the site where an out-of-control tractor-trailer hauling gasoline flipped over on an Interstate 95 off-ramp and caught fire, Buttigieg said he expected that the accident will put “upward pressure” on costs along the East Coast.
Buttigieg said he had not seen any sort of estimate of cost increases, but said the industry is working to make the most of alternative routes. He suggested that the U.S. Department of Transportation is working with route-selecting software firms such as Google and Waze to optimize their products.
"At the end of the day, there's no substitute for I-95 being up and running in full working condition," Buttigieg said.
One body was pulled from the wreckage.
Pennsylvania's transportation secretary, Michael Carroll, said he expects to release a replacement plan on Wednesday for the roughly 100-foot-long section of I-95.
For now, I-95 will be closed in both directions for weeks as the summer travel season starts, upending hundreds of thousands of morning commutes and disrupting countless businesses.
The elevated southbound portion of I-95 will have to be demolished, as well as the northbound side, officials say.
The driver of the tractor-trailer was feared dead, although the coroner has yet to identify the victim. Pennsylvania State Police said a body was turned over to the Philadelphia medical examiner and coroner but did not identify the remains or respond when asked whether they belonged to the driver.
Authorities say the driver was headed northbound, navigating a curving off-ramp when the vehicle went out of control and landed on its side, rupturing the tank.
The damaged I-95 segment carries about 160,000 vehicles daily, believed to be the busiest roadway in Pennsylvania, state officials said.
PennDOT rated the span as in good condition earlier this year, with another inspection set for 2025.
It could take weeks, at least, to replace it.
In California, a similar situation happened with a highway ramp in Oakland. It was replaced in 26 days, Joseph L. Schofer, a retired professor of civil and environmental engineering from Northwestern University, said.
In Atlanta, an elevated portion of Interstate 85 collapsed in a fire, shutting down the heavily traveled route through the heart of the city in March 2017. It took authorities there 43 days to replace it, Schofer said.
