I-95 Collapse in Philadelphia Sends Commuters Searching for Alternatives

A day after an elevated portion of Interstate 95 collapsed in northeast Philadelphia, buckling after a tanker truck caught fire, the weekday rush hour began Monday with dread and preparation. There were predictable snags, hinting at the summer of disruption and discontent that lies ahead: Commuter trains were delayed, highway on- and offramps were clogged, neighborhood streets around the area were a mess and commute times were growing.

“It’s looking like more than an hour on a typical 40-minute commute,” said John Heinrich, an electrician in northeast Philadelphia, who usually takes I-95 to get to his job site across the city. “We probably got on the road about 45 minutes sooner than we normally would.”

The accident, which left a section of the northbound side of the highway in a heap of ruins and heavily damaged a southbound section, severed one of the nation’s busiest highway corridors. I-95 runs the length of the East Coast from Maine to Miami. The damaged stretch in Philadelphia is used by about 160,000 vehicles a day, officials said. All of these vehicles now have to find alternate routes, and a normal commute is a long way off.

Federal, state and local officials are looking into the cause of the fire and the collapse of the elevated highway section, which officials said caused no injuries or deaths. The National Transportation Safety Board said it had sent a team to conduct a safety investigation.

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said in a news conference on Sunday that he expected it to take a “number of months” for that section of the interstate to be repaired. The governor said he planned to issue a disaster declaration on Monday.

In the meantime, Monday morning was full of strategizing, testing the detours suggested by officials and heeding the wisdom of local traffic reporters, who spent the morning breaking down different approaches to downtown like football coaches before the big game.

“One of the problems with this stretch of 95 is there really are not great, perfect alternates,” said Matt Pellam, the traffic reporter on the morning broadcast of the local ABC television affiliate. “Over the next few days, I think people are going to try out different options to see which is least awful.”

The last day of school for students in the Philadelphia public schools will be Tuesday, so the daily snarl may lessen a bit after that. On the gloomier side, a band of rainstorms, some potentially severe, was forecast to move into the area in time for the afternoon rush.

Commuters were learning on Monday what is in store for the next few months.

Some found that the frenzy of preparation had apparently paid off, with commutes that were, against all expectation, easier than usual.

“I don’t know when was the last time I got out of my neighborhood that quick on a Monday,” said John Gramlich, a plumber, who has a daily commute of about three to four miles. “There was less traffic than I’m used to having.”

Tom Maroon, who runs a nonprofit and takes I-95 northbound in the mornings, had the same experience. “The main roads in the neighborhoods seemed to have more volume, especially trucks,” he said. But while he was driving north on undamaged parts of I-95, he said by phone from his car, traffic was flowing more quickly than usual.

After he arrived at his office, though, Mr. Maroon found that many people on his staff had not been so lucky. “One guy said his bus went one block in 12 minutes,” he said in a text message.