I-95 reopens after crash. How it will affect Thanksgiving traffic

On November 28, 2024By Littum

Ready to travel for the holidays? You may have found yourself in even more traffic than expected in Delaware on Wednesday.

Several major roads were closed after a dump truck traveling with its bed up on I-95 south hit the Route 141 north bridge just after 4 a.m., according to the Delaware Department of Transportation.

As of 10 a.m., the highway had reopened, allowing drivers who had been stuck for hours to finally move. Traffic cameras showed slow-moving traffic on I-95 and I-495.

According to DelDOT Communications Director CR McLeod, the dump truck hit a sign and then the Route 141 bridge, causing the truck’s bed to overturn. This caused all of I-95 at the Route 141 exit to close.

A second dump truck driving behind the first truck swerved to avoid the crash but crashed through the guardrail onto I-295 before ending up in a nearby marsh, McLeod said in a Facebook post.

“It’s a heck of a mess that we’re continuing to work to get cleaned up this morning on what is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year,” McLeod said as he stood on an empty I-95. “Of course this happens on Thanksgiving Eve.”

How long will I-95 remain closed?

DelDOT announced early Wednesday that it was an indefinite closure and that there were already major traffic problems as a result.

At 8:30 a.m., Route 141 reopened across I-95. Just after 9, McLeod said an exit from I-95 to Route 141 would be open soon. The goal was to relieve at least a little bit of traffic, especially for drivers who had been stuck on the highway for hours.

Still, he said it would be at least an hour before any major routes reopened. Crews determined the driver merged onto I-495 at Exit 2/Terminal Avenue, which meant they had to run the route to make sure the driver didn’t hit other signs along the way.

Plus, McLeod said, “we’ve had several sections of guardrails taken out.”

“It’s just not safe to reopen the road until they’re fixed,” he said.

From 9, DelDOT crews worked quickly to remove the damaged guardrail, and TMA trucks — or truck-mounted dampers — were on their way to the roadway where the guardrail was missing.

Dampers are absorption devices that can withstand vehicle impacts. They are essentially airbags mounted on the back of a truck that absorb vehicle impacts.

The interstate reopened around 10 a.m

McLeod said that while there is some damage to the Route 141 bridge that will need to be repaired at a later date, “the bridge is structurally sound.”

He noted that DelDOT crews recently completed repairs to a beam on a Route 895 bridge that runs over I-95 that was damaged when a truck hit it.

This kind of incident “unfortunately has happened more often than it should,” McLeod said.

AAA predicts record Thanksgiving travel

The crash came as more Delawareans than ever plan to travel for Thanksgiving this week, according to newly released AAA forecasts.

The Delaware estimates follow AAA’s national predictions, which indicate this year will see record-breaking travelers — nearly 80 million, to be exact.

While AAA estimates only 217,000 First State residents will travel for Thanksgiving, that’s still nearly a quarter of the state’s population.

Of these, more than 91% of travelers, or more than 198,000 Delawareans, will drive. This is 1.8% more drivers than last year.