Buttigieg vows federal help to fix collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promised Tuesday to help repair the East Coast’s main north-south highway as quickly as possible and said that the destruction of a section of I-95 will likely raise the cost of consumer goods because truckers must now travel longer routes.

Speaking near the site where an out-of-control tractor-trailer hauling gasoline flipped over on an Interstate 95 off-ramp and caught fire, Buttigieg said he expected that disruptions in trucking routes will put “upward pressure” on shipping costs along the East Coast.

Buttigieg toured the site and then, over the sounds of heavy machinery and demolition, told reporters that “every resource that is needed will be made available” to help Pennsylvania repair the bridge as quickly and safely as possible.

But the collapse is snarling traffic in Philadelphia as the summer travel season starts, upending hundreds of thousands of morning commutes, disrupting countless businesses and forcing trucking companies to find different routes.

It could take weeks, at least, to replace the damaged and destroyed section, and rebuilding the stretch is likely to drag into July or August.

PHOTO INFO: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, left, meets with Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney at the scene of a collapsed elevated section of Interstate 95, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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