Governor Josh Shapiro has shown the Nation how to handle an I-95 Crisis

How about three cheers for Governor Josh Shapiro? He took the bull by the horns and said, let’s get this I-95 crisis under control.
From week to week, it seems like Philly has been getting hit with a lot of things lately that were just out of our control, to a degree, such as the poor air quality because of brushfires in Canada. Just before that, we had the water crisis to contend with, and every single day, there’s the violence, let me not leave that out.
Over the Juneteenth weekend, Governor Shapiro held a press conference to share some positive news about the I-95 repairs. Shapiro announced at a news conference following a helicopter tour of the collapse site with President Joe Biden. “I can now talk a little bit more about the progress that we’re making,” Shapiro said. “We will have I-95 reopened within the next two weeks. We are going to get traffic moving again, thanks to the extraordinary work that is going on here by these union trades workers.”
Biden, who was joined at the site by Gov. Shapiro, Mayor Jim Kenney, Sens. Bob Casey, John Fetterman, Rep. Brendan Boyle, and other officials, said reopening the collapsed roadway was the country’s biggest priority. “I told the governor there is no more important project right now in the country as far as I’m concerned,” Biden said. “I’m directing my team to literally move heaven and earth to get it done as soon as humanly possible.” President Biden has promised more federal funding for the project in the coming weeks, noting that Pennsylvania has already received $8.9 billion from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Two weeks ago, a section of Interstate 95 collapsed after a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline crashed underneath it and caught fire, authorities said.
Police said the driver lost control of the truck as he was trying to drive around the curve of an exit ramp from the northbound side of the interstate. The truck tipped over and landed on its side, “igniting the fire,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll said at a briefing the day after the collapse.
The heat from the fire weakened the I-beams supporting the overpass, causing it to collapse, Carroll said.
The good news is that, over the weekend, crews continued rebuilding outer sections of the permanent bridge on I-95 in Northeast Philadelphia. They also continued filling in the roadway in the area of the collapse with a specially designed, Pennsylvania-made recycled glass aggregate. Officials said that portion should be completely filled by Tuesday at the latest.
Governor Shapiro says by this weekend (the weekend of) June 24 and June 25, drivers should be back up and moving along I-95, where the devastating accident and fire occurred almost two weeks ago.
Long-term work will continue on and around I-95 indefinitely. But the quick fix that Governor Shapiro and Ron Boyer from the Building Trades Union and all the engineers and experts on this critical job are doing all they can to get that roadway fixed. When I-95 isn’t flowing properly, commerce is impacted negatively.
Governor Shapiro and his team’s plan for the work involves trucking in 2,000 tons of lightweight glass nuggets for quick rebuilding. With crews working around the clock until the interstate is open to traffic. Instead of rebuilding the overpass right away, crews will use the recycled glass to fill in the collapsed area to avoid supply chain delays for other materials, the Governor has said. After that, a replacement bridge will be built next to it to reroute traffic while crews excavate the fill to restore the exit ramp. President Biden says the design was incredibly innovative to get this work completed so expeditiously. This repair work is being done in record time.
The driver of the truck, who was killed in the I-95 crash and fire, was 53-year-old Nathaniel Moody…Mr. Moody’s truck, which was carrying about 8,500 gallons of petrol-toppled and ignited. The heat from the resulting fireball structurally weakened the concrete-and-steel overpass, officials said. Mr. Moody was a married father of three and an Army veteran. Condolences to the family and friends of truck driver Nathaniel Moody.
My hats off to all the men and women who are out there at the work site with crews working around the clock and being watched continuously on live stream for all to see. It’s being said that Governor Shapiro is handling this crisis so well that he’s shot up in terms of political King makers being interested in him for a Presidential run in the future. This will not be the first time I’ve heard this said about our Governor. National leaders and “King Makers” have their eyes on Josh.