By Joseph Morales

Interstate 95 is the main interstate highway running along the east coast of the United States. It is the longest north-south interstate in the country, and it runs through 15 states, about 1,924 miles from Miami, Florida, to the Canadian border in Houlton, Maine. In addition, it is also one of the most densely populated interstate corridors in the U.S as it not only passes through a plethora of major cities such as New York City, Boston, and Miami but only five counties along the route are considered completely rural according to a USA Today article published in 2004, indicating that the highway connects many people is vital to many metropolitan regions throughout the East Coast. 

                   Due to Interstate 95 not only passing through so many major metropolitan areas but also being one of if not the main highways in the regions it passes through, many Americans use the highway for various purposes, from commuting, to errands, to road trips and so much more. In the case of Philadelphia, Interstate 95(Delaware Expwy) serves as one of three major expressways in the Philly region, with the Delaware Expwy being the only one that runs from the northeastern areas of the city and through the city’s core and into its southern suburbs towards the state of Delaware. It is also the only expressway with access to each of Philadlephia’s three major New Jersey Crossings which are the Walt Whitman Bridge(I-76), the Benjamin Franklin Bridge(I-676), and the Betsy Ross Bridge(NJ-90). 

                    Unfortunately, on Sunday, June 11th, 2023, an overpass of the Delaware Expwy in Northeastern Philadelphia at Exit 30 Cottman Avenue collapsed after a tractor-trailer carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline flipped over and crashed into a wall before proceeding to explode. This ignited a fire that led to the northbound side of the overpass. The southbound side also was heavily damaged and will need to be demolished, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The overpass may have been particularly susceptible to such an incident it is made with steel girders, which can face decreased strength when faced with extreme heat. Usually, the concrete roadway prevents a fire from occurring, but on this overpass, the steel was exposed, leading it to melt.

                     Sadly, a body was recovered from the scene, and relatives believe that it is the body of former army veteran 53-year-old Nathaniel Moody, who was delivering gasoline to a Northeast Philly gas station. The Philadelphia County Medical Examiner and Coroner’s Office determined that he died of blunt trauma to the head as well as thermal and inhalation injuries.

                  As a result of the crash, this segment of the highway, which carried over 160,000 vehicles daily, must be completely reconstructed, which is expected to take months. The project has and is expected to have a draconian adverse effect on traffic flow throughout the Philly region, given how important of a travel artery the Delaware Expwy is. In addition, traffic is expected to reach horrendous levels on the local streets of Northeastern Philadelphia as many cars and trucks are forced to exit Interstate 95 and take alternate routes; many of these will cut through busy, densely populated neighborhoods similar to those seen in mixed-use areas of The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Since 26% of Philadelphians take mass transit to work, according to the CONNECT: Philadelphia’s Strategic Transportation Plan published in October 2018, slower public bus speeds will likely affect transit riders more than vehicles as bus riders have fewer alternate route options.

Also, like in many areas of New York City, areas of Philadelphia nearest Interstate 95, including the areas nearest the collapse, tend to have some of the highest rates of childhood asthma hospitalizations in the city, according to data published by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health in the city’s Community Health Assessment known as “Health of The City” published in 2021. Thus, the impact of a dramatic increase in vehicular and truck traffic around the highway for such a prolonged period of time can result in increased pollution that can have a detrimental impact on the health of residents.

                     The amount of congestion might also be so extreme that goods may cost more for consumers in the northeast as trucks are forced to take longer and more expensive routes due to the reconstruction. According to supply chain management professor Nada Sanders of Northeastern University, the effects could be felt on a national level, given how important of an artery Interstate 95 is and that detours could be as much as over 40 miles for some travelers. In addition, the collapse could have effects on prices outside of the East Coast because many supplies transported along I-95 are used to construct infrastructure, products, and other goods. Thus, manufacturers will likely horde these materials leading them to cost more regardless of where they are purchased. Food items can also be affected as longer routes around the I-95 corridor could lead to more food spoiling, and thus, less food would be readily available, which would, in turn, mean higher prices. 

                      Given the severity and potential impact the collapse is having on the Philadelphia area as well as the northeast region as a whole, one may wonder how such an incident can be prevented in the New York area. As traffic has already reached significantly higher levels in all parts of Philadelphia this week following the collapse, one can only imagine what would happen if something similar happened in New York City, given its population density is substantially higher than that of Philadelphia. 

                      This may lead one to question the risk of a similar collapse on New York City’s expressways, especially the New England Thruway and Cross Bronx Expressway in The Bronx, which are both parts of Interstate 95. As for highway construction, Interstate 95 was constructed separately in both New York and Pennsylvania, and segments of I-95 in both states are managed by their respective state transportation department. While it is unclear if the driver of the gasoline truck did anything illegal prior to crashing, both states have similar HAZMAT CDL endorsement requirements in order to transport hazardous materials such as gasoline. In addition, both the cities of New York and Philadelphia have permit requirements necessary to transporting hazardous materials through their respective cities. 

                   NYC even has more specific requirements, such as specific hours and routes one must take while transporting hazmat materials. In some cases, the FDNY commissioner can, at his or her discretion, order that a vehicle carrying hazardous material be escorted for safety reasons. It is unclear if Philadelphia has similar requirements beyond a state license and municipal permit.

                     The one issue of concern for New York City may be that exposed steel, which played a major role in the Philly collapse, is prevalent throughout NYC’s expressways, including at key intersections such as the Bruckner Interchange and the BQE/LIE(I-278/1-495) interchange in Queens according to Google Maps Street View imaging taken between February 2022 and April 2023. In Philadelphia, as the overpass was at a standard exit location onto a local street at 6AM on a Sunday, police officers and emergency personnel were able to promptly able to close off the area, and thus, no one was injured or killed except the driver of the truck that died in the explosion. A responding police officer could even be heard as he was approaching the scene on a dispatch radio recording obtained by ABC6 Action News Philadelphia saying, “We need this off-ramp shutdown. I have no idea what is on fire.”

                       If something of this magnitude were to occur in any busy NYC location, such as the ones mentioned, the situation would likely be far more severe, and the aftermath would look like one from a horror movie, given the size and height of the NYC expressway overpass and the activity density surrounding them. In addition, given the amount of congestion on NYC expressways often at many times of day, first responders would likely have less time to get to a fire situation, and thus the number of casualties would likely be much higher. Traffic in many areas could also become enter a state of near paralysis should a similar highway closure occur, as NYC has similar or even less expressway coverage than Philadelphia in some areas. This would lead to bus routes becoming even slower, which could have a more draconian effect on NYC bus service as even fewer New Yorkers own cars than Philadelphians, and as it stands, many routes citywide already struggle with slow speeds, reliability, and overcrowding.

Any supply chain issues that would transpire would also be much worse and widespread nationwide due to the number of warehouses and companies citywide that rely on the expressways to transport goods, as well as the amount of food that is transported to and from the rest of the country via hubs through the Hunts Point Food Market in The Bronx. Issues resulting from vehicle noise in areas near any collapsed expressway would also likely be worse than they ever have been before.

                      The main solution the city and state can consider to fireproof highways and expressways is known as intumescent paint. Intumescent paint is a form of reactive paint that, according to the UK fire protection company FireSealsDirect, “…swells up or intumesces to many times its original thickness when exposed to high temperatures, like in the event of a fire.” Dr. Abi Abgyahere, a longtime structural engineer and civil engineering expert from Drexel University, told ABC6 Action News that while the material is expensive, he recommended it be used on bridges and overpasses to prevent incidents such as the I-95 collapse.

                        However, while it is unclear how much such a project would cost for any given bridge or overpass, some engineers have pointed out fireproofing measures in general as being prohibitively expensive to prevent such a rare occurrence. While engineers are generally taught to plan for the worst-case scenarios when designing structures, it is often not seen as cost-effective to spend a significant amount of resources attempting to prevent, say, tsunamis on the East Coast from significantly damaging structures. 

                        In reference to the risk of highways collapsing due to fires, NYC consulting bridge engineer Andrew W. Hermann told The New York Times in 2007 that “The probability of these things happening are pretty low. “The cost to protect every overpass would be outrageous.”  

In Oakland, California, in 2007, a similar situation to the one that happened in Pilly occurred when a burning gasoline truck crashed and exploded. With regard to the incident, Loring A Wyllie Jr.,  a San Francisco area engineer, also told The New York Times, “We worry about the seismic things in California.” “I never thought about a fire doing that.” These types of perspectives also remained the norm after two similar incidents in our area involving structural damage to highways. This included when I-95 in Bridgeport, CT, buckled after a truck with heating oil was burning and when traffic lanes buckled following a trash fire that twisted the steel supporting them on Interstate 78 in Newark, NJ, in August 1989.

                        As the I-95 collapse in Philadelphia cost a man his life and is causing unprecedented levels of congestion throughout the Philadelphia region, many may be more concerned about how to prevent similar incidents in their communities. Given the magnitude of the incident, cities across America, including New York, may be more inclined to invest not just in protecting highway infrastructure from fires but from any sort of damage or incident that could hamper their ability to safely transport millions of New Yorkers throughout the New York Tri-State area.

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