Your tax dollars at work

You’ve probably heard/read about the bridge that collapsed on I-95 near Philadelphia when a gas tanker truck failed to negotiate a (sharp) turn, hit a wall and exploded and burned under the overpass. Original estimates were that it would take months to re-open.

Comes news this weekend that it will open in a couple weeks, thanks to:

The tem­po­rary re­pair will be built out of a type of foamed glass, a light-weight, gravel-like ma­te­r-ial, that con­trac­tors are al­ready pour­ing into the gap in the dam­aged road­way, Shapiro said. When it reaches the sur­face of the main stretch of I-95, the back­fill will be lev­eled off, paved and pre­pared for traf­fic.
[WSJ 6/19].

I’ve not heard of this before, but last week the Journal editorial writers opined on how the only solution would be to offer the private sector “incentives” to get the job done early, noting that it only took a couple months when that was done at other similar sites. Guess there is something new under the sun, maybe?

Pennsylvania (or somebody?) has set up a live stream so people can watch the progress. (It’s nothing much to watch: a bunch of trucks driving around, construction workers clearing debris, etc. In real time, of course.)

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