I-95 collapse to lift prices of East Coast goods, Buttigieg warns

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said there’s “no question” the collapse of a section of Interstate 95 in northeastern Philadelphia will result in higher prices of goods on the East Coast. 

The failure is having an outsized impact on commuters and the movement of goods and services, Buttigieg said Tuesday at a press conference at the site. 

The 1,924-mile (3,096-kilometer) interstate runs from Miami to the Maine-Canada border. It’s part of a critical long-distance trucking and commuting route. The portion of the highway, which collapsed after a tanker-truck fire on Sunday, carried an average of 160,000 vehicles a day, he said, 8% of which were trucks. 

“Obviously, that is a lot of America’s GDP moving along that road every single day,” Buttigieg said.

The incident is being investigated by the US National Transportation Safety Board, which expects to produce a preliminary report in two to three weeks.