Due to the explosion of a fuel tanker Thursday evening on I-95 in Bridgeport, Conn., many Dartmouth students driving back to campus from the East Coast were forced to modify their routes.
The tanker burst into flames after colliding with a passenger vehicle on an overpass. While everyone at the scene of the explosion managed to avoid any serious injuries, the highway was severely damaged. The 1,800-degree flames caused the steel girders to melt and the entire roadway buckled.
The southbound side suffered the worst damage and will need to be replaced. The demolition of the remaining portions of the southbound overpass began Friday. Meanwhile, the northbound side may be salvageable and will hopefully be opened sometime this week. Its stability is still being evaluated.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation rerouted traffic in both directions to U.S. Route 8 Thursday evening and provided other alternative routes for the 120,000 drivers who travel the stretch daily.
The state transportation department encouraged northbound drivers to take I-87, commonly referred to as the Major Deegan, to 287 to 684 to I-84. Many of the students who normally take I-95 to I-91 to get to campus took this suggested alternate route instead. Fortunately for travelers, the weekend traffic on these roads was not nearly as heavy as the weekday and the extra congestion did not prove to be unbearable.
Carrie Rooke '06, however, chose to take I-87 from northern New Jersey to Albany and then took 784 to the more scenic U.S. Routes 7 and 9, which lead to I-89.
"The back roads were gorgeous, except for when you got stuck behind locals driving ten miles per hour, but it was definitely a good decision," Rooke said.
Brittany Lewis '06 said she would have normally taken I-95 north from southern Connecticut but instead took U.S. Route 15. Her trip, she noted, did not take any longer than expected.
"I took the Merritt [Parkway] and there seemed to be more cars than usual, and the switchover back onto the interstate was pretty tight," Lewis said, "but it didn't really take any longer to get to Hanover."
Not everyone was so lucky. Blake Johnson '05, returning from New Jersey, said it took him three hours to cross the Holland Tunnel thanks to the increased congestion caused by cars trying to avoid I-95. "It was miserable," Johnson said.
The state has ordered a pre-fabricated bridge and plans to use it to replace the southbound overpass. If the northbound section proves to be unable to support heavy traffic, the pre-fabricated bridge will replace that section and I-95 will be closed even longer than expected.
