{"id":207574,"date":"2026-06-01T16:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207574\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T16:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:52:09","slug":"how-philadelphia-rebuilt-i-95-in-just-12-days-after-a-fiery-colla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207574\/","title":{"rendered":"How Philadelphia Rebuilt I-95 in Just 12 Days After a Fiery Colla"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated4 min read\"SparkleKey Points\"CaretA 104-foot I-95 section in Philadelphia collapsed after a gas truck explosion in June 2023, affecting 160,000 daily vehicles and 2.2 million people across the region.Contractor Robert Buckley completed an ambitious temporary bridge rebuild in just 12 days using innovative foamed glass and nonstop work, beating the governor’s three-week timeline.When rain prevented final lane striping, Pennsylvania officials creatively borrowed a massive 1,400-degree jet dryer from nearby Pocono Raceway to dry the road and complete the project.<\/p>\n

When a 104-foot long, four-lane stretch of I-95 in Philadelphia collapsed after a fiery gas truck explosion on June 11, 2023, it kickstarted what would become one of the most dramatic, quick-turn construction jobs in modern U.S. history.<\/p>\n

One look at the numbers showed how dire the situation was. The affected interstate segment carried 160,000 vehicles daily, and the road\u2019s closure would impact an astounding 2.2 million people, so Pennsylvania officials wasted no time starting the rebuild of the roadway. Calling in top Philly-based contractor Robert Buckley to lead the project, the state hoped to get the interstate back and fully operational at the destruction site over Cotton Avenue as quickly as possible, with Governor Shapiro giving an estimated construction timeline of as little as three weeks.<\/p>\n

But Buckley decided to fast-track the already-tight timeline\u2014he ambitiously said he could complete the build by the Fourth of July\u2014and the project he endearingly (and fittingly) called the \u201cPhilly Special\u201d turned out successful. With the help of some innovative foamed glass and a nonstop work schedule, Buckley\u2019s crew managed to construct a temporary bridge in under two weeks. After giving the roadway one final pave in mid-to-late June, all workers had left to do before reopening the road was paint the lines.<\/p>\n

However, an unforeseen, uncontrollable factor threatened to put the construction project\u2019s finishing touches on hold: Mother Nature.<\/p>\n

As explained in this Pop Mech feature<\/a> on the high-stakes bridge rebuild, when the construction crew reached the final step of the temporary bridge completion\u2014lane striping\u2014rain storms passed through Philadelphia, soaking the roads and rendering painting impossible. \u201cWe got this far, and we got stopped because of paint?\u201d Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll told Buckley at the time.<\/p>\n

However, Carroll had a creative solution to solve the weather-induced dilemma. Why not bring in a gigantic dryer?<\/p>\n

Read the Incredible Full Feature<\/p>\n

Carroll, who had previously been a state representative for Luzerne County, was quite familiar with the area\u2019s Pocono Raceway, which consistently hosts NASCAR, IndyCar, and other auto races year round. He thought back to his days at the track when the speedway would pull out its industrial-strength jet dryer\u2014an Air Titan 2.0\u2014to dry the track when rain showers came through. It\u2019s a massive machine, and can slowly roll down roads while running at 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n

So, he thought, why not haul in the dryer from the Poconos to dry off the temporary bridge?<\/p>\n

Now, bringing in the Air Titan 2.0 was not as simple as loading it onto a truck and driving it to Philadelphia. Ricky Durst, senior director at Pocono, informed Carroll that he\u2019d need a lot of pure kerosene\u20145,000 gallons\u2014to make the industrial dryer run. Thankfully, Bucky had a contact in New Jersey who could stock the kerosene, and not long after confirming the crew had the needed fuel, Durst put the dryer on the back of a red Chevy Silverado and sent it on its way to the job site (with a police escort, of course).<\/p>\n

Carroll\u2019s hunch about the dryer proved correct. The Air Titan worked magic, drying the road at a quick pace to allow lane striping to begin. And once the construction crew painted all the lines, the temporary bridge was finally set to open. For Buckley and his subcontractors and workers, it marked the end of an adrenaline-filled undertaking that left everyone completely drained.<\/p>\n

He explains the incredible toll the I-95 job took on himself and his crew:<\/p>\n

After days of nonstop effort, the crew was physically and mentally exhausted, but also euphoric and filled with adrenaline. Buckley had lived on a diet of Wawa hot dogs and dust. Every part of his body ached. \u201cEven my hair hurt,\u201d he says. With the pressure, the strain, and the lack of sleep, he lost about 10 pounds. But more than anything, he was satisfied: The job was the most collaborative project of his career, and a grateful city with a reputation for being curmudgeonly, booing at visiting sports teams and throwing snowballs at Santa Claus\u2014and who had watched the entire job on livestream\u2014was ready to thank him and his crew.<\/p>\n

On June 23, 2023, a mere 12 days after the destructive crash that destroyed the segment of I-95, cars started to hit the roadway over Cotton Avenue. The permanent structure would later be fully complete and operational by May 2024.<\/p>\n

But using the massive racetrack dryer wasn\u2019t the only unique strategy Buckley\u2019s team and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation used to turn the destroyed I-95 stretch in Philly into a navigable road again. For a closer, behind-the-scenes look at how one of the quickest, most expensive road construction projects came to fruition, dive into the full Pop Mech feature now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

Ashley is Editor of Content Hype at Hearst\u2019s Enthusiast & Wellness Group. She is a former collegiate runner at UNC Asheville where she studied mass communication. Ashley loves all things running; she has raced two marathons, plus has covered some of the sport\u2019s top events in her career, including the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials and multiple World Marathon Majors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"4 min readKey PointsA 104-foot I-95 section in Philadelphia collapsed after a gas truck explosion in June 2023,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4034,139,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-207574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-focus","tag-news","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}