Less than two weeks after the Philadelphia collapse, a section of US Freeway I-95, one of the busiest in the east of the country, will reopen Friday after non-stop work.
• Also read: A major freeway collapses in Philadelphia
After the June 11 incident, which was sparked by a fire in a tanker truck just below the highway, authorities estimated it would take several months for traffic to be restored on this vital axis.
But teams worked day and night, in all weathers, to build a temporary road, made mostly of recycled glass, in 12 days.
Authorities have also resorted to iconoclastic solutions, such as using a vehicle normally used to dry the track of a car race after rain, to speed up drying.
Those who were curious could follow the work live thanks to a streaming video.
Faced with questions about the speed of the work, Pennsylvania State Transportation Official Mike Caroll told a news conference, “The road is reopening because it is finished, safe and open to traffic.”
The materials used to construct the track “have been rigorously tested and have been used multiple times,” he noted minutes before the first official vehicles entered the track.
The street will be open to the general public from midday.
Cars and trucks will travel in six lanes instead of the usual eight and at limited speeds as work continues on both sides to rebuild a permanent carriageway.
The I-95 Freeway is a major highway on the East Coast of the United States. The closure at the northeast entrance to Philadelphia, a city of about 1.5 million people, has severely impacted traffic to and from New York.
US President Joe Biden, who flew over the site last Saturday, welcomed this quick reopening, which he says was facilitated by the necessary resources and permits quickly provided by his administration.
“I know how much [la route] is important to people’s quality of life, to the local economy and to the 150,000 vehicles that use it every day,” he said in a statement.