Why Biden world thinks the I-95 bridge repair holds the key to reelection

In the passenger seat of an electric vehicle cruising through western Tennessee last week, Mitch Landrieu was fired up — talking into his cell phone about as fast as the speed limit, his voice booming.

President Joe Biden’s infrastructure coordinator, in the midst of a summer-long road trip highlighting the administration’s industrial policy, had just visited an electric vehicle charging station and a plant converted to produce fiber optic cable. But he was calling to talk about how the reopening of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia, just 12 days after a deadly bridge collapse, provided evidence of “Bidenomics” success, a tangible improvement people can see and feel that will be a centerpiece of the president’s 2024 campaign.

“We’re in the process of rebuilding America,” Landrieu told West Wing Playbook. “Laying cable, modernizing cars and making them, making the parts … it takes time to completely rebuild the country from the bottom up … but people are going to see the benefits.”

The speedy repair of the I-95 bridge, as Landrieu sees it, was largely the result of the Biden administration’s work: The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law that provided funding for repairs, strong coordination between the White House and local leaders, and the president’s own directive that aides make the repairs their top priority.

After the collapse, local officials were alarmed — as was Biden, no stranger to the area. Beyond commuter headaches, they worried about the impact on supply chains if the East Coast’s main ground transportation artery was closed for months, as many initially projected.

“When I woke up that Sunday morning, my phone had blown up,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), whose district was home to the collapsed bridge. “My first call was to the White House.” After connecting with senior aides including Anita Dunn and Steve Richetti, Boyle got a call from Biden “assuring me they were going to move heaven and earth.”

By that point, Landrieu had already assured Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro that federal funding from the infrastructure law would be available. Federal Highway Administration Administrator Shailen Bhatt was already on the ground, setting up a command center with local officials.

“The president called me that Monday and said, ‘Mitch, this is the No. 1 priority in the country,’” Landrieu recalled.

Inside the White House, deputy chief of staff Jen O'Malley Dillon and the intergovernmental affairs team helped oversee coordination. PennDot’s Mike Carroll, a former state lawmaker who knew Shapiro and Boyle well from their days in Harrisburg, had offered a potential quick fix: Use 2,000 tons of aggregate made from recycled glass to fill in the area beneath the now collapsed bridge to reopen the interstate on top of it.

PennDot already had experience using the glass material, which was available from a facility in Delaware County just 17 miles away. Just as auspiciously, there was a contractor doing work on the highway that officials redirected to the bridge repair effort. Weather largely cooperated. And there were no qualms about keeping the four local union crews working around the clock — and paying their overtime — because the federal funding was already in place.

“We had a team of people that knew each other well. Nothing can move that fast if no one trusts each other, so you’ve got to build that,” said Landrieu. “That has allowed us to respond very quickly when we have catastrophic events and the president says, ‘Run to that fire.’”

Biden, who received written progress reports from Landrieu every day, joined Shapiro, Boyle and other local officials for a flyover and press conference the weekend after the collapse. In the Philadelphia area, people were fixated on the progress. In addition to the governor holding daily briefings, Shapiro’s office set up a livestream so the public could watch repairs. The reopening just 12 days after the bridge collapse became a cause for celebration — not quite Phillies championship parade levels, but close. The Phillies Phanatic and Gritty, the Flyer’s hairy orange mascot, were among the first to traverse the road atop a firetruck.

“I have never gotten more compliments,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. “I think the PR part was handled quite well. I didn’t expect Gritty on the fire truck but there he was. This was a tragedy because we lost that driver, but overall the way this came out, people were confident about their government’s ability to do stuff.”

Few states will be as critical to Biden’s reelection as Pennsylvania. But while Shapiro’s statewide approval rating is now at 57 percent following the I-95 reopening, the president, who carried Pennsylvania in 2020, remains well under the 50 percent mark.

Sharif Street, chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and a state senator, said Biden, Shapiro and the city's building trades all deserve credit for the quick fix. But he said Biden in particular isn't getting the kudos he is owed.

"He doesn't get the credit he deserves for most of what he does," Street said. "If a good thing happens, he only gets half the credit. If a bad thing happens, he gets twice the blame."