When news broke about the collapse of a bridge on interstate highway I-95, in Philadelphia, it made national news. And for good reason: the interstate typically carries more than 150,000 vehicles daily through Philadelphia alone. 

This news was anything but welcome for the supply chain, which had already been fragile since the beginning of the pandemic, and arguably even before. Of those 150,000 vehicles that travel through Philadelphia on I-95 daily, around 14,000 of them are trucks, which in 2021 alone carried roughly 21 million tons of freight worth more than $100 billion through the region. The supply chain of the Northeast Corridor, the Eastern Seaboard, and frankly the nation, relies on I-95. 

At the time of this article’s creation, we have received positive news that a temporary bridge on I-95 has been completed. However, a permanent replacement bridge is not expected to be completed for “some number of months,” according to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. 

Many professionals see the I-95 bridge collapse as a microcosm of the nation’s ongoing supply chain woes. In an instant, drivers and suppliers traveling through Philadelphia — one of the country’s largest cities — had to be rerouted, extending trips by hours, and delaying goods from their final destinations. While improvements to infrastructure are promised in the coming decades, as a major part of the $1.25 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed in 2021, disruptions like this can happen anywhere, at any time. And when they do, all stakeholders must be aligned and able to work together efficiently to ensure repairs are completed as safely and quickly as possible. These projects call for experienced, certified project managers.

With any infrastructure project, and especially rebuilding projects like the I-95 bridge that impact thousands of daily lives, many players are involved — including government entities, private organizations, and vendors. Each plays a different role in the process and has their own goals, budgets, timelines, and stakeholders to manage. A centralized project manager ensures each party is sticking to their respective timelines and budgets, which is essential, as many supply chain and infrastructure projects involve government funding and face additional fiscal scrutiny to make sure these funds are being optimized and used appropriately. They also help assess less obvious risks that may impact a project’s timeline and manage scope creep — when changes are made to a project scope without any control procedure — which can slow down projects, leading to delayed completion dates.

While managing each stakeholder individually, project managers are also a rallying force for the project holistically. For rebuilding projects, they plan checkpoints throughout the process to schedule when individual construction teams need to be involved and/or on site. They understand how each team, organization and process works to ensure projects stick to their initial timelines. This also means understanding the safety requirements to ensure everything is completed in a compliant way. 

Project managers are also responsible for communicating with stakeholders outside of just those physically working on the repairs. This includes entities involved in and affected by the project, including federal officials who provide the funding and regulatory bodies that ensure the project meets safety standards. It also means the general public, as the project manager’s timeline estimate is ultimately what gets shared with local and national news outlets. For projects to have successful stakeholder management, clear communication of the project status, progress, and forecasts — as well as any setbacks that may occur — is critical. The project manager enables this transparency.

In my experience supporting and managing similar sized infrastructure projects in the state of New York, I can say with confidence that project managers are key to ensuring any damages to large-scale infrastructure are alleviated as quickly as possible. As is the case with any project with strong public and business interests, research shows that project success has the potential to change prevailing attitudes. According to 2023 research from Project Management Institute (PMI), the majority of Americans view state and local governments as responsible for infrastructure improvements, and only 37% are confident in the government's ability to successfully complete infrastructure improvements in their community.  

The I-95 bridge collapse, while sudden and unpredictable, presents a case study that will be analyzed for decades to come as other parts of the supply chain face additional and inevitable challenges. As future construction projects are introduced stemming from the IIJA, and as economic and geopolitical headwinds slow down or create unforeseen changes in a supply chain, these new project managers will have a critical role to play. PMI has estimated that 25 million new project management-oriented employees are needed to meet global talent demands by 2030, with much of that need driven by the manufacturing and construction industries. To fill these roles is to reinforce the nation’s infrastructure and, consequently, the supply chain. 

Dr. Aydin Tabrizi is vice president of membership at the Upstate New York Chapter of Project Management Institute.