Miracle on I-287: How crews put a blown-out highway back together in mere days

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New Jersey was crumbling all around him.

Jim Simpson was 400 feet up in a helicopter, getting a bird’s-eye view of the roads collapsing from Hurricane Irene.

The state’s transportation commissioner had become a reluctant master of disaster since arriving in the state 21 months earlier, presiding over some of the worst blizzards, hurricanes and mudslides in New Jersey history — with an earthquake thrown in for good measure. A cabinet member of Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, Simpson often breaks the ice at speaking engagements by joking, "Once Gov. Christie became a governor, Mother Nature changed parties and became a Democrat."

But Simpson had never seen anything like this.

Swollen from Irene on Aug. 28, the raging Rockaway River turned Interstate 80 into a lake in Denville and collapsed Interstate 287 in Boonton. Other flooding blocked exit ramps on the highways, prompting Simpson to consider the unthinkable.

"We almost lost all of I-80," he said. "As a matter of fact, we had already made plans to restrict traffic coming into I-80. We already talked to Pennsylvania and the other states. We said, ‘We’re going to lose I-80.’

"Then we lost 287."

This is the inside story of an asphalt miracle. An account drawn from interviews with the commissioner and front-line workers of how more than a hundred men and machines put a road blown out by raging water back together in just over three days. It was an effort that staved off paralysis in a state already ravaged by the second-worst storm in its history and a feat those who were a part of it can’t quite believe they accomplished.

The roads wouldn’t stop crumbling. The calls wouldn’t stop coming.

Road workers brought chain saws to hack up fallen trees and slept overnight at state maintenance centers — figuring they would never be able to make it back home, anyway — but still couldn’t put a dent in the number of incidents.

"At the command center, we had 700 closed roads over the course of the event," Simpson said. "At one point, we were up to like 300. Then we’d fix 10 and then 20 more would come online. We thought there would be no end to it."

One seemingly innocuous call arrived to the DOT’s central dispatch unit in Hamilton at 12:47 a.m. Aug. 29.

There was guide rail damage on I-287 North in Boonton.

The DOT dispatched a crew supervisor to have a look at what, amid the multitude of other Irene-related calls, seemed like a minor incident.

The response was quick — and blunt.

"It isn’t just guide-rail damage," an area supervisor reported back. "We’re losing the road."

Fresh off a day in which he got two hours of sleep in a chair at his office, John Gahwyler, a DOT regional maintenance engineer in charge of eight northern New Jersey counties, prepared for another long shift.

He took his white SUV with the DOT insignia — and the healthy lunch with an apple and sandwich packed by his wife, a trainer — to mile marker 44.7.

"You could hear the river — that’s all you could hear," Gahwyler said. "That thing was raging."

Normally, the Rockaway River makes a gentle C-curve around that stretch of I-287.

This time, it was so fierce it made almost a 90-degree turn.

The pressure from the river blew out the 15-foot wide shoulder on I-287 and the 15-foot slope next to it, causing a canyon that was 30 feet deep, 100 feet long and 30 feet wide.

"It looked like the Colorado River eating away at 287," Simpson said.

There was no blueprint for Gahwyler and the other engineers to work from. It was a unique catastrophe in his nearly quarter-century career with the DOT.

Engineers were able to contain the Rockaway River on I-80, but I-287 had to be shut down northbound in Boonton, leaving thousands of motorists to seek alternate routes.

Gahwyler phoned the statewide traffic management center in Woodbridge and called for emergency contractors.

Engineers and state transportation officials decided to start plugging the giant hole with protective shot rock, riprap and other large rocks in a particular order.

The first dump truck arrived at 7:30 a.m.

The immediate goal was to make one lane of I-287 passable.

No one dared predict when the entire road would reopen.

The sun had not yet risen when Boonton Mayor Cyril Wekilsky received a call from the DOT. He was told of "an incident" near town hall.

Wekilsky first met with his emergency management coordinator, then the two drove to I-287 to have a look.

"When you see something like that, I don’t know what you think," Wekilsky said. "What in the world happened?"

The mayor offered any help he could, but the DOT wanted its own people.

"Being a layman, I thought it would take forever," Wekilsky said.

With one of the state’s major thoroughfares shut down, the small town of Boonton functioned like a clogged artery. Thousands of cars meandered through, bypassing the closed section of highway and picking up the interstate at the north end of town.

Minus a major commuting road, motorists turned into explorers, improvising their own crazy routes.

Traveling to her job in Riverdale, Ashley Marion, gifted with a strong sense of direction, figured out a way around the traffic mess.

From Route 10 East, she turned onto Troy Hills Road, which turned into Beverwyck Road. She took a left onto Lake Shore Drive, which turned into Greenbank Road, before making a left onto Vreeland Avenue, bringing her onto I-287 past the traffic.

"I basically just took whichever roads led north that were open," she said. "I trusted local traffic for most of it, just following a few other people around the detours."

Others weren’t so fortunate. Delays of an hour or more had to be factored into an already brutal commute in America’s most-congested state.

Simpson is a friendly, enthusiastic transportation official who talks faster than a truck late with a delivery on the New Jersey Turnpike. Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni tells the story of how when he first met him, he assumed the energetic Simpson stopped for coffee on the way there — until he realized he was always that way.

But as he surveyed the damage from Irene in a State Police helicopter, Simpson was discouraged.

One lane of I-287 North reopened at 5 p.m. Aug. 30, a little more than a day and a half after the shoulder washout.

But that caused another problem.

"As soon as people realized we had more capacity, more cars came out," Simpson said. "I looked at it from the air and we had backups from Rockaway almost to the George Washington Bridge, and it was paralyzing that whole corridor that needed help — the Patersons and the Waynes and Fairfields."

The still-blocked lanes on I-287, along with the ramp closures on I-80, had turned both roads into highways from hell.

First responders and sick patients couldn’t get through the pre-planned emergency routes. People couldn’t get to work. Simpson knew something needed to be done — fast.

"Transportation is the circulatory system of the economy," he said. "We had major arteries blocked and closed — and you know what happens then."

Some engineers said it would take weeks, or even months, to repair I-287, but motorists didn’t have weeks or months to spare.

"So we said, look, if the SeaBees can build a runway overnight, why can’t we build this highway?" Simpson noted, referring to the U.S. Navy Construction Battalions renowned for their speedy work. "We know what we need — let’s just get the material and do it."

Simpson was told about a company in Minnesota that specialized in such highway repairs.

"You know that saying, ‘Trenton Makes, The World Takes’? New Jersey will do this," he responded. "By the time this company can find Boonton on the map, we’ll have one lane open."

New Jersey Army and Air National Guard Maj. Gen. Glenn K. Rieth, who has more than 31 years in the military and got to know Simpson well during the planning for Hurricane Irene, was impressed by the transportation commissioner’s can-do attitude. Rieth kept jokingly telling him: "You think like a military guy."

"Watching Jim operate, I thought I was working with another senior military officer," Rieth said.

More than 2,000 soldiers were on hand to help New Jersey through the hurricane, in what Rieth called the Guard’s "proudest moment" from a domestic perspective. Some helped with traffic control on Interstates 287 and 80.

In a conference room at the state traffic management center in Woodbridge, Simpson — whose past careers and hobbies include truck driver/pilot/federal transit administrator/New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority commissioner — joined state transportation officials as they mapped out their strategy to handle the latest natural disaster during his tenure.

In the room, in big letters, was a printed sign stretching 10 feet across one wall. It listed the Five P’s: "Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance."

Like surgeons trying to stop bleeding, emergency contractors kept trying to clog the hole on I-287 with the big rocks, some up to 4 feet in diameter.

Although the original intent was to plug the hole enough to get one highway lane open, the repairs were meant to be permanent.

The left lane was opened at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30, in time for the afternoon rush 40 hours after the blowout was called in.

Realizing they needed more manpower and materials, transportation officials multiplied their efforts that day, calling additional quarries and going from a half-dozen dump trucks to 30.

"That’s what really helped us move it along," Gahwyler said.

Such progress was made that contractors began thinking they could reopen the road two days later.

The last of 420 dump truck loads of rock was added to the cavern around 3 p.m. Aug. 30.

Contractors began covering the riprap and shot rock that formed the new shoulder. Twenty-five inches of crushed limestone and asphalt was put over the large rocks, and a 2-inch-thick layer of damaged asphalt was removed from the right lane in order for it to be resurfaced.

Three hundred feet of guide rail still needed to be replaced.

But the guide rail contractor’s vehicles couldn’t immediately travel on the new asphalt shoulder because they would have left marks.

So, a water truck first cooled the pavement. Then, pounder machines drove in posts to replace the guide rail.

In the wee hours of the morning, the shoulder was striped in white.

Stunned commuters awakened Sept. 1 to find the road was completely open.

Final figures were still being tallied, but Simpson estimated that the emergency repairs on I-287 will have cost "several million dollars."

The state’s round-the-clock effort and diligence deserves praise, said Pete Singhofen, president of the New Jersey section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

"That was a real significant event there," he said. "It’s impressive. It seems like it was a real coordinated effort to repair that section of roadway."

Transportation officials worked overnight on Aug. 31 and opened all lanes to traffic at 4 a.m. Sept. 1 — just in time for the morning rush and the upcoming Labor Day weekend.

"Relief," Gahwyler said, describing his main feeling after running on fumes for days. "It was just nice to have it done. It’s one of those situations where everybody worked together, and it came together."

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/09/miracle_on_i-287_how_crews_put.html

[scandal 951]

Buzz off.

This is the all-Palestine all-the-time show.

Nobody gives a rats ####### to read longassed articles about New Jersey freeways.

[^_^ 5,021]

Buzz off.

This is the all-Palestine all-the-time show.

Nobody gives a rats ####### to read longassed articles about New Jersey freeways.

The article is about a government agency under a conservative Governor outperforming expectations.

[slim 1,530]

The article is about a government agency under a conservative Governor outperforming expectations.

And spending "several million dollars" in the process.

[^_^ 5,021]

And spending "several million dollars" in the process.

That's why we pay taxes... you'd prefer it be used on a jobs program for angry men who want to shoot Ay-rabs?

[slim 1,530]

That's why we pay taxes... you'd prefer it be used on a jobs program for angry men who want to shoot Ay-rabs?

I'm just wondering if those 420 dump trucks were run by inedependent, non-union companies who didn't charge the government the maximum allowable rate for no-bid jobs that paid prevailing wages.

I won't hold my breath until we find out the answer.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

The article is about a government agency under a conservative Governor outperforming expectations.

That miracle was performed by skilled union labor.

[mawilson 2,133]

I'm just wondering if those 420 dump trucks were run by inedependent, non-union companies who didn't charge the government the maximum allowable rate for no-bid jobs that paid prevailing wages.

You said 420?

[MyLittlePony 340]

I hear New Jersey not a good place.

[^_^ 5,021]

I hear New Jersey not a good place.

Here be dragons. Stay away.

[Ban Hammer 13,498]

Here be dragons. Stay away.

[^_^ 5,021]

And these dragons too.

[Ban Hammer 13,498]

And these dragons too.

snookie isn't anything to be proud of

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None of those douchebags are anything to be proud of. But they're scary.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

None of those douchebags are anything to be proud of. But they're scary.