Josh Shapiro puts his ‘get s*** done’ mantra into action
Salena Zito
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Minutes after a tanker truck exploded under a portion of Interstate 95 in Pennsylvania early Sunday morning, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) was on the phone being briefed by first responders and the state’s emergency management agency and transportation department and making plans to be on site as soon it was cleared of safety concerns.
It was all hands on deck immediately, matching what Shapiro said in our interview in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in May regarding his daily morning “get s*** down” briefings, saying, “That is our attitude every single day. It is a focus of how our leadership structure has been set up, which is to get s*** done, which is to get answers, get the checkout, cut through the wait time, whatever it is. We talk about this stuff literally every morning on our morning meeting and throughout the day.”
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From Sunday on, the main priority coming out of the governor’s office has been getting things moving as quickly as possible. The key to that goal has been effective, capable coordination with all levels of government as city officials, city police, city fire, state police, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation all have worked together to lessen the road closure’s overall economic and emotional impact.
Five days later, all that remained of a portion of overpass was a collapsed heap of steel and concrete rubble. The wreckage and damage have been removed days ahead of schedule, and a livestream of the efforts to rebuild the structure was launched, showing the crews, cranes, and trucks working to start the process of rebuilding.
“To chart our progress and give everyone a sense of timing, we’re launching our 24/7 live stream where you can watch I-95 get rebuilt,” Shapiro tweeted. “Government is working for the good people of Pennsylvania.”
The transportation impact was calculated almost immediately. It wasn’t just a snarling traffic headache for local commuters: The closures of the northbound and southbound lanes of I-95 were immediately estimated to have a significant economic impact on the entire mid-Atlantic and a large stretch of the Eastern Seaboard.
On the day of the accident, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission said the affected portion carries over 150,000 vehicles per day, with 10% of those vehicles being trucks carrying goods and deliveries to all points north, south, east, and west. The road closure will grind to a slog the supply chain in manufacturing, farming, industrial products, and goods coming from the shipping docks.
Shapiro’s response and efficiency in how he has handled this is reminiscent of how former California Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, handled the swift (three months) reconstruction of the nation’s busiest highway in April 1994 after the Northridge earthquake knocked down two sections of the world’s busiest thoroughfare — a closure that caused massive delays and bottlenecks for thousands of commuters.
It is also similar to the way Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) restored access to Pine Island in the building of a temporary bridge in three days in October of last year after the Lee County structure was demolished by Hurricane Ian. He executed the same sense of urgency in repairing the Sanibel Causeway as well, finishing the project in under three weeks after Hurricane Ian had closed off access to and from Sanibel Island for residents.
By Thursday, the first truckloads from the Aero Aggregates manufacturing plant in Eddystone, of a recycled glass material that will be used to backfill the collapsed portion of I-95, were on the road for a plan that will fill this gap in the highway where the collapse occurred and build a temporary roadway at the same time the new highway is being built beside it.
Traffic in and around the area is a labyrinth of slow-moving cars, multiple traffic signs, orange cones, and unfamiliar alternative routes for locals, delivery makers, and travelers alike.
Shapiro said Wednesday he was very aware of how important I-95 is to the flow of people and goods and products, “not just in Northeast Philly but all the way up and down the East Coast,” and that was a deciding factor as to why it was being approached with expediency.
G. Terry Madonna, political science professor at Millersville College, said governors don’t get to pick what falls on their doorstep at 6:30 in the morning on a Sunday, “but it is there as a responsibility to deal with it and bring people together, and that is what Shapiro has done effectively.”
Madonna pointed to former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh, a Republican, as an example here of handling the nuclear plant partial meltdown in 1979 at Three Mile Island as effectively making sure both to bring people together and keep them calm.
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“What happened on I-95 is a very serious crisis. Like Thornburg who did not allow panic to set in during the Three Mile Island crisis, neither has Shapiro. He has created an atmosphere where everyone wants to work together,” he said. “He has been involved, come up with a plan, has met with a variety of people, and has made it a top priority.”
That, Madonna said, is just good governing: “Shapiro showed people how to solve a problem and showed the country that the people in Pennsylvania can get things done. That is the kind of aspirational thing people look for in leaders.”