Buttigieg, other officials to visit collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit the site in Philadelphia on Tuesday where an out-of-control tractor-trailer hauling gasoline flipped over on an Interstate 95 off-ramp, caught fire and destroyed a section of the East Coast’s main north-south highway.

One body was pulled from the wreckage.

Buttigieg was scheduled to meet with city and state officials and to discuss how the U.S. Department of Transportation can help rebuild the roughly 100-foot-long section of I-95, the agency said.

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 104-foot 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.