160k people a day having to detour, millions being inconvenienced.

I don't really care what political bias News Nation has, the segment this picture comes from was fairly accurate as to the problems that will be caused by this one small bridge having collapsed. They are talking about MILLIONS of people being inconvenienced by this. Toss in that the detour will take people onto a road which is even worse. It has TWO accident black spots in this stretch of highway.  Both of these are on the detour route:

Accident Black Spot Philadelphia - Grant Ave and E Roosevelt Blvd Accident Black Spot Philadelphia - Red Lion Rd and E Roosevelt Blvd

This means that the traffic following the detour will be on a very bad stretch of road.

Sure, SEPTA is talking about adding cars to the already over used regional rail, but that is not even a band aid on the wound. We are talking arterial bleeding in terms of what a disaster this one small bridge collapsing will cause. 

I would be ecstatic if I were a terrorist and this sort of target had been taken out. In fact, there is another spot on I-95 which the results would have been far worse for traffic in this corridor than this had the accident happened there. That gives you an idea of how bad having an accident like this will effect transportation on the East Coast.

Unfortunately, the US is unprepared to deal with the problems caused by its failure to address the issues that this disaster has raised. I really wish that it would cut the partisan bullshit and start working on the problems the US is causing itself.

 The US has to pull its head out of its ass sometime, and I hope it is soon.