{"id":34448,"date":"2025-11-14T20:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T20:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/34448\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T20:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T20:24:11","slug":"how-philadelphia-rebuilt-i-95-in-12-days-after-tanker-blast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/34448\/","title":{"rendered":"How Philadelphia Rebuilt I-95 In 12 Days After Tanker Blast"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the predawn hour of June 11, 2023, Nathaniel \u201cNate\u201d Moody steered his 18-wheeler northbound on Interstate 95 in northeast Philadelphia. The 53-year-old Army veteran, with cropped, graying hair and a wide smile, had driven a truck for a decade and owned his own rig. He was local to the Philly area, married with three children. That morning, he had a routine job: delivering 8,500 gallons of gasoline<\/a> to a nearby Wawa station.<\/p>\n

But as Moody navigated the exit onto westbound Cottman Avenue, he lost control of the vehicle on a turn near the end of the exit. The tanker flipped onto its side and skidded to a halt directly under a section of I-95. The crash ruptured the tank, and sparks ignited the gasoline. The truck exploded. A massive fireball shot into the sky, followed by billowing plumes of black smoke. Moody died instantly.<\/p>\n

In no time, an inferno overtook the truck, reaching temperatures as high as 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The fire under I-95 acted like a barbecue grill, holding the heat and cooking the steel<\/a> girders beneath the roadway. In less than 15 minutes, the beams began to buckle until they failed.<\/p>\n

A 104-foot-long, four-lane stretch of I-95 collapsed onto Cottman Avenue, setting off a chain of events\u2014requiring unprecedented cooperation between the government and private contractors and filled with handshake agreements, round-the-clock work, engineering ingenuity, and a determination to get the job done fast\u2014that led to one of the most dramatic, high-stakes construction jobs in modern American history.<\/p>\n

\"decorative<\/p>\n

For officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, work was the last thing on their minds that morning. June 11 was a Sunday, two weeks after Memorial Day weekend, the holiday that morphed into the unofficial start of summer. It was also supposed to be the hottest day that week, reaching nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Some swapped the city heat for beach breezes an hour\u2019s drive away at the Jersey Shore.<\/p>\n

Mike Carroll, Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation and eight-time member of the PA House of Representatives, was asleep in a beach motel. Around 6:30 a.m., he was jolted awake by a phone call. On the line was Jon Fleming from the energy services division of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, better known as PennDOT. Fleming told Carroll about the explosion. \u201cIt\u2019s bad,\u201d Fleming warned the secretary.<\/p>\n

When Fleming finished sketching out the details, Carroll quipped, \u201cIs that all?\u201d<\/p>\n

Carroll was known for his sense of humor, but he understood this was serious. I-95 is one of the most important economic arteries on the East Coast. The affected stretch, with eight lanes total, carried 160,000 vehicles<\/a> daily, and its closure could impact 2.2 million people\u2014not to mention cause untold millions of dollars in economic disruption from New York City to Miami.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

He got dressed and drove to the scene. The air was filled with an acrid smell, and smoke billowed from the pile of crushed concrete and melted steel. Personnel from the Philadelphia police and fire departments, the Office of Emergency Management, and PennDOT District 6, which is responsible for the Philadelphia metropolitan region, were already there.<\/p>\n

Din Abazi was at home in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, when he, too, received a 6:30 a.m. call. His was from the IT department at the Regional Traffic Management Center where he worked as a PennDOT structural engineer. Why the hell is our IT person calling me? Abazi thought, but quickly noticed the anxiety in the caller\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n

Abazi turned on the TV and saw footage from the scene. Oh my God, he thought. During his 35-minute drive to the site he tried to remember the bridge\u2019s attributes: Is it steel<\/a>? Is it low-clearance? Is it a long-span bridge? All would determine how the bridge<\/a> would behave in a fire.<\/p>\n

Harold Windisch, the PennDOT District 6 area engineer, had just finished walking his dog when he turned on the TV and saw a news report about the emergency. He looked at his phone and noticed a missed call from Louis Belmonte, the District 6 Executive. Belmonte was in charge of engineering, construction, and maintenance work for PennDOT\u2019s Southeast Region.<\/p>\n

Windisch immediately dialed Belmonte, who explained the situation. \u201cI\u2019ll get a contractor out there,\u201d Windisch said.<\/p>\n

The job would require a contractor with the resources, knowledge, and connections to get a project like this underway quickly\u2014someone who had worked emergencies, especially on interstates. Windisch knew just the man.<\/p>\n

\"decorative<\/p>\n

Around Pennsylvania, Robert Buckley was known for his big personality, reputation for hard work, and ability to get emergency jobs done fast. He\u2019s a big guy with a tuft of white hair, dark eyebrows, and a charismatic smile, who, in his 60s, still has the energy of a man half his age.<\/p>\n

Buckley is from a family of construction workers and had been in the business all his life. As a kid, he worked alongside his grandfather, a truck driver and machinist, starting in the grease pit at the family shop, at $4.25 an hour. Later, he worked for his dad. He had an interest in fixing things from an early age, whether it was motorcycles, boats, or cars.<\/p>\n

\"manHannah Yoon<\/p>\n

Robert Buckley in South Philadelphia, September 2025.<\/p>\n

More often than not, the Philly-based contractor was at the scene of an accident before the authorities, already sketching plans in his mind for how to fix it. His company, Buckley & Co.<\/a>, had a long-standing relationship with the state government, working on a number of notable steel projects. At the time of the fire, Buckley had active contracts with the state, including work on an adjacent section of I-95 about four miles from the fire.<\/p>\n

Buckley was also at the Jersey Shore that morning, just out of bed and planning to take his grandkids for breakfast at Uncle Bill\u2019s Pancake House, when he got a call from Windisch. He could tell by Windisch\u2019s voice that this was urgent. (\u201cHe knew I wasn\u2019t calling to ask where he was going to church or what the sermon was,\u201d Windisch says.)<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, we got an emergency on I-95. There\u2019s a bridge collapse<\/a>. We need you to get out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buckley immediately began calling his subcontractor contacts. Windisch recalls him \u201cmobilizing like Tom Cruise\u201d in Mission: Impossible\u2014\u201cgetting manpower back at the office, finding out what people they needed in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scene looked like something from a war\u2014\u201ctotal mass destruction,\u201d as Buckley describes it. Where the stretch of northbound lanes had collapsed, he could see charred steel and parts of the tanker truck surrounded by piles of porcupined rebar and soot. Concrete was scattered everywhere, and it smelled of burnt paint, burnt truck parts, and burnt rubber. How the hell am I going to put this mess back together? Buckley thought as he surveyed the damage.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when he noticed gasoline<\/a> running from the truck into the sewer and drainage system, causing alarming 20-foot flames to shoot out of nearby manholes. Buckley knew the significant environmental risk to the Delaware River, which supplies drinking water to the Northeast\u2014including 1.5 million people in the Philly area alone. He alerted Philadelphia Emergency Management, who dispatched a Coast Guard team to deploy a boom to contain it.<\/p>\n

Once that was taken care of, he inspected the bridge more closely. He noticed that the bridge\u2019s failure point was unusual: It had collapsed at its quarter-point rather than sagging in the middle, as bridges usually do. The girders that supported the traffic lanes were made of steel, and Buckley knew steel didn\u2019t start to warp until temperatures hit at least 2,500 degrees, so the fire must have been incredibly intense.<\/p>\n

By around 8:45 a.m., the fire department had the blaze under control and opened up the scene for officials to get a closer look.<\/p>\n

There was a noticeable sag under the southbound lanes. Not promising, Abazi thought. PennDOT officials discussed installing temporary cribbing\u2014support blocks or beams\u2014under the girders to hold them in place. But as Abazi got closer, he saw that the supporting structure, or abutment, at the northeast corner was badly damaged. The entire first layer of reinforcing steel in the abutment had expanded and popped its 3.5-inch concrete cover. The elastomeric bearing pads\u2014neoprene or natural rubber components that provide structural support\u2014were also destroyed.<\/p>\n

Now that the fire was contained, the next question was how to open at least part of the Interstate as fast as possible. Buckley\u2019s team couldn\u2019t build a new bridge\u2014they didn\u2019t yet know the condition of the abutment, and a full rebuild would take many months anyway. What didn\u2019t make matters any easier was that the roadway had a skew (one side was longer than the other) and was bifurcated (one side was higher than the other).<\/p>\n

What they could do was build a temporary structure to get traffic flowing as quickly as possible, with a permanent structure to follow.<\/p>\n

Around 9 a.m., Buckley and Windisch agreed on a concept: backfill the center section of I-95 over Cottman Avenue, where the bridge had collapsed, and construct temporary lanes on top. Then they would begin to build three permanent lanes on each side of the temporary ones. Once those were finished, they would tear down the temporary center lanes and construct permanent lanes in their place.<\/p>\n

\"officialsMatt Slocum \/ Associated Press<\/p>\n

Officials, including then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, view the collapsed section of I-95, June 13, 2023.<\/p>\n

But there was another issue: The aging utilities and sewer system underneath the road wouldn\u2019t withstand the weight of traditional fill, like recycled asphalt or what\u2019s known as \u201ccommon\u201d fill (usually a mix of native soil, sand, and gravel). Some of the plastic piping was melted, and there was a 60-year-old box culvert\u2014a rectangular concrete structure used to channel water under roadways\u2014and nobody knew its condition.<\/p>\n

A lightweight foamed glass aggregate, Buckley pointed out, would protect the utilities under Cottman Avenue and also be strong enough to support asphalt lanes and traffic.<\/p>\n

Sketching his vision on a piece of paper, Buckley presented what he had in mind to Carroll and Windisch, later dubbing this illustration the \u201cPhilly Special,\u201d named after a trick play the Philadelphia Eagles deployed in the 2018 Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

At 1 p.m., Peter Abbonizio, the president of a demolition company C. Abbonizio Contractors Inc., received the order to tear down what was left of the southbound lanes. Later that afternoon, Governor Josh Shapiro toured the site and spoke at a news conference. Dressed in a black polo with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania crest in gold stitching on the chest, he described the wreckage as \u201cremarkable devastation\u201d and said he\u2019d issue a disaster declaration to draw down federal funds and quickly repair the bridge. Still, it would take \u201csome number of months\u201d to rebuild the section of I-95, he added. (Shapiro\u2019s original estimate was three months.) After Buckley was officially assigned the job, he told his team of 150 or so guys that it was going to be a tough one. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to get lunch, you\u2019re not going to get dinner, you\u2019re not going home, you\u2019re not going to Little League\u2014or you\u2019re all fired.\u201d He drove his guys hard, but he also got his hands dirty, and the crew loved him for it.<\/p>\n

The reason for his demanding approach? Buckley had a different deadline in mind than Shapiro. \u201cYou gotta start talking to the horse\u2019s head, not the horse\u2019s ass with this three months thing,\u201d Buckley told PennDOT officials. \u201cI\u2019ll have it open by the 4th of July.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"decorative<\/p>\n

Archie Filshill\u2019s phone had also been buzzing all morning on June 11. He was up early and returning from his Jersey Shore beach house when fellow engineers started texting him about the I-95 crash. His first thought was how he was going to reroute around it, since he lived just two exits from the scene.<\/p>\n

At around 8:15 a.m., Harold Windisch called. \u201cArch, we have a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cLook, we might need your material. Do you have enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifteen minutes later, Harry Laspee, an engineer from the water department, called. \u201cHey, Arch, we have an issue,\u201d he said. \u201cDo you have enough material?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifteen minutes after that, a call from Buckley: \u201cArch, I gotta explain the story to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filshill laughed. \u201cRob, I got this story twice already\u2014and we have enough material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filshill is president of AeroAggregates of North America<\/a>, the country\u2019s leading supplier of the ultralight foamed glass aggregate that Buckley wanted. The material is about 85 to 95 percent lighter than rock or recycled asphalt aggregates, weighing only 20 pounds per cubic foot compared with 120 to 130 pounds for common fill. It\u2019s used as a base under asphalt pavement and concrete slabs, as backfill for underground pipelines, and in structural foundations.<\/p>\n

\"framedHannah Yoon<\/p>\n

Buckley\u2019s \u201cPhilly Special\u201d sketch on the wall in his office.<\/p>\n

AeroAggregates operates two plants in Pennsylvania and Florida, with headquarters in Eddystone, Pennsylvania\u2014just under an hour outside of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The crew on site rushed to clear the area so Filshill\u2019s team could fill the hole as soon as the rubble was gone. On Monday and Tuesday, they demolished the collapsed northbound structure and removed debris from both the northbound and southbound lanes. Because of the bridge\u2019s condition, they couldn\u2019t place heavy machinery on its deck, so they needed to do it from the ground, which took longer than it otherwise would have.<\/p>\n

By Wednesday, June 14, Filshill got notice that the project was definitely going to use the aggregate. That same day, Shapiro held a news conference and explained that the temporary structure would be a much quicker build than planned because of the innovative material they planned to use.<\/p>\n

The public, however, had no idea what foamed glass was. \u201cThey heard \u2018recycled glass\u2019 [and] thought they were going to stack up broken bottles,\u201d Filshill says. One woman interviewed by a local news station at a Wawa convenience store said, \u201cI\u2019m not going to drive on it. I don\u2019t want to get a flat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next morning, Filshill gave interviews with all the local stations as well as CNN and Bloomberg, where he explained what the material was. He showed samples of the product and delivered a consistent message: \u201cIt\u2019s made from recycled glass, but it\u2019s not broken glass that they\u2019re putting in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scene looked like something from a war\u2014\u201ctotal mass destruction,\u201d as Buckley describes it.<\/p>\n

Filshill was at the Eddystone plant starting at 4:30 a.m. that day, ensuring a smooth shipment of the material. The plant, which runs 24\/7, is on a 10-acre property once owned by Baldwin Locomotive Works, where steam locomotives were built. All the glass cleaning, milling, and foaming is done in an 80,000-square-foot building\u2014the size of almost one and a half football fields\u2014before the aggregate goes out on a conveyor belt and is stockpiled in a mound outside.<\/p>\n

The Eddystone plant is only 24 miles from the collapse site, but because of the Interstate closure, traffic was backed up all the way to Delaware. The project couldn\u2019t afford any delays if it was to be completed by Buckley\u2019s timeline, so Carroll arranged for a State Police escort. Three state trooper vehicles with sirens wailing led the first three semi trucks dispatched from the plant. The trucks got on I-95 and drove on the left shoulder, and didn\u2019t stop until they arrived at the scene, where workers unloaded the material directly onto I-95 so it would be ready to be dumped into the gaping crevice the next morning. The trucks shuttled back and forth, transporting 85 loads totaling 8,000 cubic yards of aggregate\u2014equivalent to approximately 8 million glass bottles. (With regular fill, it would have taken about 600 truckloads.)
<\/p>\n

As Filshill drove to the site, news and police helicopters circled overhead. He broke into a giggle and called his wife. \u201cYou\u2019re not gonna believe what I\u2019m doing right now,\u201d he said, to which she replied, \u201cI\u2019m watching you live on TV.\u201d He told her, \u201cI feel like I\u2019m bringing gold bullion to the mint, like this is The Italian Job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before pouring the aggregate, crews laid out high-strength geogrid, a plastic mesh used to reinforce soil, at the bottom of the pit. Buckley had brought in two concrete conveyors and connected them to a heavy-duty stone slinger truck with a conveyor-belt arm. When it was time to put down the aggregate, the material traveled from the stone slinger down the conveyor belt and into the hole. The geogrid can handle 7,000 pounds per square foot and has a design life of 100-plus years. The crew would fill the hole with 18 inches of aggregate, compact it, lay down another layer of geogrid, and rinse and repeat until they reached the top.<\/p>\n

Because of the skew on the roadway, Buckley had trouble getting the aggregate into the corners. So he improvised, attaching a synthetic sleeve that looks like an elephant\u2019s trunk, normally used to pour concrete, to the truck. The aggregate would drop down the chute, where an operator at the bottom controlled the pour with a remote, filling the hard-to-reach corners.<\/p>\n

Despite some rain, it took just three days to fill the hole<\/a> with the foamed glass aggregate\u2014three to four times faster than regular fill\u2014because it can be poured in thicker lifts and doesn\u2019t require weather stoppages, as its porous structure allows water to drain through. So far, all was going according to Buckley\u2019s Philly Special plan.<\/p>\n

\"decorative<\/p>\n

By Saturday, June 16, full production was underway. While Buckley\u2019s crew poured the aggregate, Filshill\u2019s team worked on the retaining wall that would be used to hold the aggregate. The design incorporated a high-strength polyester reinforcement from Huesker, a provider of geosynthetic building materials based in North Carolina. It was placed every 18 inches, with a temporary welded-wire mesh serving as the facing. To ensure stability, the crew also used polymeric geogrids and welded wire forms.<\/p>\n

By 8 p.m., about three-quarters of the backfill was complete.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Buckley directed and coordinated a team of subcontractors responsible for different elements of the temporary structure. Earth Wall Products, a Georgia company that provides proprietary retaining wall systems, designed the traffic barriers, also known as parapets, that sat atop the completed wall structure. Atlantic American Precast from Pennsylvania served as the precast production partner for Earth Wall Products, manufacturing the barrier units, and quickly diverted 30 F-shaped barrier sections weighing 13,000 pounds each from an existing job to supply the I-95 site. Faddis Concrete Products, a Pennsylvania precast concrete manufacturer, supplied the bifurcated median barriers designed to manage the differing grades between the northbound and southbound lanes, delivering 12-foot-long units\u201415 total\u2014in just four days instead of the typical four to six weeks, shaving about two weeks off the project timeline.<\/p>\n

Buckley and the PennDOT team set up a central office right on Cottman Avenue to make sure the site ran as smoothly as possible. When Buckley needed a few winks, he bedded down in what he dubbed \u201cThe Hotel Ford\u201d\u2014his Ford F-350 truck\u2014which had a seat that (partially) reclined. He was racing to meet the timeline he had set for himself. For five days and nights, he hadn\u2019t left the jobsite\u2014cajoling, supervising, pitching in. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were brought in for the guys, but they just grabbed something to eat and went back to work, with no set breaks, through rain, chill, and heat.<\/p>\n

So far, the job was going so smoothly that Buckley started thinking his original three-week timeline might actually turn out shorter. Part of it was luck\u2014Filshill having the aggregate they needed so close to the site\u2014but part of it was the unprecedented cooperation among the many agencies and contractors involved. The project had become a national event. Early on, Carroll knocked on Buckley\u2019s trailer window and said, \u201cI\u2019m here to help you.\u201d It was a gesture Buckley found unprecedented from a government official. He took Carroll up on it and put him to work. \u201cYou\u2019re standing here, grab some grid, pull it out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The job, in fact, had attention from the highest levels of power. Governor Shapiro was regularly at the scene. Buckley was so impressed by the governor\u2019s role in the project that he nicknamed him \u201cGovernor Superhero.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"constructionHannah Yoon<\/p>\n

Buckley & Co. construction workers on a different section of I-95 on September 9, 2025.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, June 13, then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg toured the construction site, meeting with Carroll and Philadelphia\u2019s then-mayor, Jim Kenney. He promised federal funds and spoke briefly with reporters, stressing the importance of the project. \u201cObviously, that is a lot of America\u2019s GDP moving along that road every single day,\u201d Buttigieg said.<\/p>\n

Even President Joe Biden came to inspect the site\u2014sort of. On June 16, Biden and Shapiro flew over the site in a helicopter. \u201cPlease don\u2019t land your helicopter on 95,\u201d Buckley begged, fearing that the Secret Service and the Presidential entourage would shut down the site for \u201ctwo days for a 10-minute clip,\u201d and slow momentum.<\/p>\n

At a press conference afterward at the Philadelphia International Airport, Biden said he had directed his team \u201cto move heaven and earth to get this done as soon as humanly possible\u2026There\u2019s no more important project right now in the country as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"decorative<\/p>\n

On the misty evening of Wednesday, June 22, 11 days after the explosion and the night before the temporary bridge was scheduled to open, Jimmy Anderson of James J. Anderson Construction Co., the paving contractor, raced to get the concrete poured before forecasted rain. His crew finished at around 2 a.m., and all that remained was lane striping.<\/p>\n

Then the skies opened. The rain wasn\u2019t heavy, but it was a problem. \u201cDon\u2019t celebrate too much,\u201d Anderson told Mike Carroll. \u201cYou can\u2019t stripe an Interstate when it\u2019s wet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got this far, and we got stopped because of paint?\u201d the Secretary fumed.<\/p>\n

Then an idea came to him. Carroll was previously a state representative from Luzerne County, home of Pocono Raceway, which hosts NASCAR, IndyCar Series, and other races. Carroll remembered that when it rains, the facility deploys an industrial-strength jet dryer to dry the track (NASCAR tracks must be perfectly dry because the cars\u2019 treadless tires will lose traction if the racing surface is wet). The dryer, an Air Titan 2.0, sounds like a jet engine when fired up. It runs at 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, operating at a slow roll.<\/p>\n

Carroll called Ricky Durst, a senior director at Pocono, who was happy to help but warned of a catch. \u201cYou have one more problem,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need 5,000 gallons of pure kerosene. That\u2019s how much it burns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carroll walked over to Buckley and explained the issue. Buckley knew someone in New Jersey who could provide the kerosene. Within minutes, the dryer was sitting on the back of a red Chevy Silverado, en route to the jobsite with a police escort.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for the Air Titan to dry the roadway. The lines were promptly painted, and the temporary bridge was ready to open.<\/p>\n

\"constructionJoe Lamberti \/ Associated Press<\/p>\n

Buckley & Co. workers cheer as I-95 is reopened on June 23, 2023.<\/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

\"decorative<\/p>\n

At around 12:30 p.m. on June 23, 2023, 12 days after the crash that killed Nathaniel Moody, the first cars started rolling across the southbound temporary bridge over Cottman Avenue, joined by traffic on the northbound section an hour later. The roadway featured three 11-foot lanes in each direction, with no shoulders and the speed limit reduced to 45 miles per hour. Work on the permanent structure would be fully completed in May 2024.<\/p>\n

Buckley & Co. raised $12,000 to help Moody\u2019s family, and, later, Philadelphia\u2019s major sports franchises\u2014the Eagles, Phillies, 76ers, and Flyers\u2014along with local union organizations, made a collective $50,000 donation to create a trust for Moody\u2019s 7-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

The crews who worked 24\/7 to finish the project were treated like local heroes. The Phillies hosted Buckley, Carroll, Filshill, Abbonizio, and others at a home game at Citizens Bank Park\u2014a few miles down the road from the collapse, right off I-95. The group was escorted through a press entrance and, before the opening pitch, onto the field, where the crowd erupted in a standing ovation. \u201cBeing a Philly guy and having that happen in my hometown was really special,\u201d Filshill says. \u201cOff the charts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governor Shapiro marked the culmination of the project with a celebratory party at Live Casino & Hotel. Around 380 people attended, including government officials and workers, and Philadelphia\u2019s sports mascots, among them Gritty, the Flyers\u2019 beloved orange furball.<\/p>\n

Buckley celebrated with his crew and all the key players who had opened the temporary bridge in less than two weeks. He told his guys to take a paid day off the next day. But the day after that, he reminded them, they had better be on time. They had work to do.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Mitch Moxley is a writer whose work has appeared in Esquire, GQ, and The New York Times Magazine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the predawn hour of June 11, 2023, Nathaniel \u201cNate\u201d Moody steered his 18-wheeler northbound on Interstate 95…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[21487,21483,21482,12475,21486,451,21481,11479,1578,21480,21479,3431,21485,69,71,70,21488,21484,5795],"class_list":{"0":"post-34448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-aeroaggregates","9":"tag-buckley-co","10":"tag-cottman-avenue","11":"tag-delaware-river","12":"tag-foamed-glass-aggregate","13":"tag-governor-josh-shapiro","14":"tag-i-95","15":"tag-interstate-95","16":"tag-joe-biden","17":"tag-nate-moody","18":"tag-nathaniel-moody","19":"tag-penndot","20":"tag-pete-buttigieg","21":"tag-philadelphia","22":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","23":"tag-philadelphia-news","24":"tag-philly-special","25":"tag-robert-buckley","26":"tag-wawa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34448","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=34448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}