An award-winning federal response to a sudden transportation disaster

Interstate 95 is a lifeline along the eastern end of the United States. When a bad truck accident knocked out a bridge near Philadelphia in 2023, a team from the Transportation Department orchestrated an effort that got it replaced in a week and a half. For their work, Tony Mento, Hari Kalla and Camille Otto of the Federal Highway Administration are finalists in this year’s Service to America Medals program. Ms. Otto is deputy administrator of the Pennsylvania division and she joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk about their achievement.

Interview transcript: 

Tom Temin
And just recreate what happened in the aftermath, as everyone remembers, this tanker truck of gasoline exploded underneath the bridge. And the heat caused the bridge to collapse. What’s the process by which the Federal Highway Administration finds out about a thing like this? Or do you just watch TV.

Camille Otto
So fortunately for us, we have wonderful relationships with our State Department of Transportation, people know them as PennDOT, as well as the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. And so we have an electronic system actually, that when these incidents happen, that we get alerted through email almost immediately. So we were made aware of through email, and honestly, through phone calls from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. We have long standing relationships and cell phones. So immediately calls were being made to all three of us at federal highway.

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Tom Temin
And so state officials, I guess some extent maybe even city officials and federal officials are standing and looking at a hole in the road with a kind of a embankment on either side. Who’s in charge at this point?

Camille Otto
To start off, it was actually the National Transportation Safety Board and the Pennsylvania State Police, as well as emergency management agencies were out, because the fire was still ongoing. And as folks may know, there was a gasoline tank or so. That gasoline was still on fire and leaking into the drainage systems. So they were on the scene to get everything stabilized. Really before anyone else could access it to take a look at the damage and assess things.

Tom Temin
Right. Tell us about the immediate aftermath. Eventually the flames are out. It’s probably hot for a long time. When did the Federal Highway Administration kick in? And what did you perceive your role to be once the flames cooled off?

Camille Otto
So even more, while the fires were still burning, we were communicating with the state DOT, and getting things lined up and working on traffic control. But once the fires were out, we had already assembled a team. So we were down in Philadelphia, and we’re on site actually the next day on Monday to start assessing and working on a plan to get the bridge reopened.

Tom Temin
And did you see the site yourself?

Camille Otto
I did not on the first day. When we were able to access it, I stayed back to manage some of the traffic control and all of the coordination efforts. And I sent my senior bridge engineer Jonathan Buck, as well as my lead for engineering so that they could be down on site to really look at the technical aspects of it and provide PennDOT with the best advice tactically that we could add as quickly as possible.

Tom Temin
So the issue then is how far the damage goes beyond what you can see, such that you know that whatever you attach back is going to stay up. Just to put it in simple terms.

Camille Otto
That’s exactly correct. So we knew immediately that the northbound lane had actually collapsed, but we were not sure about the condition of the southbound lane, as well as some of the abutments. So immediately, everyone was looking at those to determine what was their status and it was identified that the southbound lanes would also have to be replaced. So from that point, then we could look at what else needed to be done to get that removal going and move forward with a plan.

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Tom Temin
Yes, sort of was standing by habit, the one way, and the other one had collapsed completely. It was gone. We’re speaking with Camille Otto. She’s Deputy Administrator of the Pennsylvania division of the Federal Highway Administration, also a Service to America Medals finalists this year. What happens then once the damage is finished happening, and the traffic is rerouted, you’ve got this hole. And how do you get going next? You need contracts, you need contractors, you need assessments. Tell us about the process.

Camille Otto
So the first thing to look at was what type of alternatives do we have? Fortunately, we had done work on this bridge not too long ago. PennDOT sprang into action and we looked at design plans, what type of materials we can get, and how quickly you can get them. We were very fortunate that a contractor was nearby. So he sprang into action and their group was able to do the removal within a few days. While PennDOT and Federal Highway we’re actively working on what can we do to get a temporary repair up and running. And fortunately we had some very innovative solutions for as you know, the lightweight glass aggregate fill, which is local to a Delaware County group. So we were able to gather all that information very quickly, even while the contractor was doing removal and come up with a design plan. So it really took a large effort on behalf of multiple agencies, both local, state and federal, and the private sector to kind of come up with some innovative solutions quickly.

Tom Temin
How was it bridged in 12 days? Even though that wasn’t the permanent bridge, but enough that it can handle. And let’s face it, a lot of trucks go over 95 on 95 every day, so it had to bear some real weight and wear and tear.

Camille Otto
Absolutely. So we were fortunate in the fact that we were not overwater, which allowed us some extra leeway in innovative solutions. So what they ended up doing was placing this fill within sort of cages from a layman’s term, and compacting it layer by layer with this glass aggregate that PennDOT has done lab testing on in the past and federal highway has done testing as well. So we knew what this product was based on some of those innovative technology testing that had previously been done. And they just layered and compacted, and you can watch on the video as they continue to build it up and up and up until they could put the page surface on the top.

Tom Temin
In other words, they had to spam something. And what they had to span it with was this material compress, that could stand up for that distance across the lanes of the road below.

Camille Otto
Exactly. So they we’re spanning over a ramp and off ramp to the interstate. So they were able to fill that space, with this aggregate. Had that been water, it would have required a different solution. So like I said, this was very innovative to use this to span that to get a temporary solution to open that back up to traffic, including trucks. And so the lab testing was key to know that this would be able to carry that kind of weight.

Tom Temin
So in some ways, the technology and the mechanisms administratively to have this were already in place, you might say.

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Camille Otto
Correct. So we have our innovative councils and our Everyday Counts initiative. And this was included in some of those things. So that advanced innovation testing was very key to making this successful.

Tom Temin
And what is happening next? Because that fill materials in there, but that’s not intended to be the permanent solution. And you watch roads get built and you wonder why it takes them six months to pave a mile or something somewhere, and the one that drives a long road construction. So what’s next to make it permanent?

Camille Otto
So the fix is actually permanent now. So we have done the temporary fill. And while they had that done, they were actually able to get the steel beams and build the outside portions of the bridge, while people ran on the inside in the fill. Once that was done, which was late last fall, they began pulling out the fill. And once the fill was out, they could build the inside of the bridge while the traffic was running on the outside. So as of May 23, last month, they were able to complete all of that and one lane of the Cottman ramp is back and restored. So everyone is back and running on a fully restored version of i95. And the only remaining work is really to do one more lane of Cottman Avenue on the off ramp, and put a few more safety features. So we’re going to have some high friction surface to help vehicles navigate the curve and some additional signing as well just to warm.

Tom Temin
As someone who spends a lot of time on two wheels, I like the idea of a high friction surface for the curves. And couple of questions then. After removing the film material, are you evaluating it to see how it was stood for approximately a year of temporary use, just to see what happens.

Camille Otto
So they were able to look at it before they even removed it. So it performed adequately. And additionally, I would assume some of that testing data will obviously go back to federal highway for future uses as well.

Tom Temin
Yeah, cause glass fill sounds like something that could be an abundant commodity to make stuff out of that could be put in maybe permanently in some places.

Camille Otto
So we do have some of this permanently in place on some projects. Typically, I believe in some interchange slopes and things. So this is actually being used already in other areas.

Tom Temin
Are there any lessons learned from bridges where in this case it wasn’t 95 where a crash occurred, but underneath 95 and the flames went up to 95? If I’m describing it right, is there any alterations to bridges that could be promulgated, so that if another tanker blows up the bridge won’t melt?

Camille Otto
We have looked at some of that information. Of course the the amount of heat coming from a gasoline fire is a very very, very intense. And so there’s limited in what you can do. But we have looked at how can we make a stronger steel? And what kind of information? And a lot of these things will feed back into some of our everyday counts initiatives. Is there some innovation there, and other materials or strengthening that can be done. And so those are things that our bridge engineers do take back and look at, and we try to provide information and always looking to build a better safer product anytime we can.

Tom Temin
And by the way, do you come to your job from the engineering side? Because you know a lot about this. Or do you come to it from the program administrator side.

Camille Otto
So for me, originally, I’m actually a biologist and not an engineer. So it’s one of the few maybe that comes from this angle. But I’ve worked with a lot of engineers. So I’ve been in Transportation for 27 years. Starting out in the consulting arena working for state DOT’s. And now I’ve been with federal highway 14 years now. So my job now comes from the program administration side of things, but I think it really takes a team, so we pull everyone together to have all aspects covered when we’re working on things. So I think it’s helpful to have all of those different diversities to bring to the table and really come up with a solution that covers all all aspects.

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