GW Expert Available: I-95 Highway Collapse in Philadelphia After Tanker Truck Fire

In Philadelphia, Monday morning traffic slowed drivers who tried to find new routes around a closed section of northbound I-95, which collapsed yesterday after a tanker truck caught fire underneath the highway overpass. Authorities say it could take months to repair, impacting local traffic and cutting off a major East Coast artery. According to The Washington Post, the roadway carries about 160,000 vehicles a day between local activity and through traffic across Philadelphia.

Kim Roddis is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the George Washington University and a registered professional engineer who has experience in heavy industrial and general commercial building design, as well as in bridge design. As a structural engineer, her expertise and research interests include design, fabrication, and construction processes; structural applications of artificial intelligence and computer-aided design; web-enhanced teaching; fatigue and fracture in bridges; frame stability; and seismic steel connections. She is recognized nationally as an expert in distortion-induced fatigue of steel highway bridges and internationally as an expert on the application of artificial intelligence and advanced computing methods to civil engineering problem solving.

Roddis can discuss her thoughts on what might have happened as well as speak to the importance of resiliency in this situation and finding alternative ways for people to get around the damaged area, as it may take weeks to find a temporary repair and months to do a permanent fix.

If you would like to speak with Prof. Roddis, please contact GW Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].