Downtown is three square miles out of 138 square miles in the city of philadelphia. So, again, ill let them talk about other cities but this idea that somehow there is its, you know, impossible to move around the city is just not correct. Reporter the head of the u. S. Secret service also responded to those who feel that the multi day closing of streets highways and the ben franklin bridge is overkill. You have to have structure. Iif you dont have structure, you have mayhem and you have to have routes available so if there is an incident we can certainly get the holy father out of the city. Reporter so, the gentlemen saying you have to have a plan. That includes an exit strategy and the pope going to so many places during his visit here its going to have to be a big plan. Youre looking at a live picture of that enclosure thats coming together on eakins oval part of almost a lamper village that is being built down here along the oval as well. Live above the parkway, john rawlins, channel6 action news. Alicia. John, thank you. As you can see here, we are counting down seven days, 17 hours and counting and as john mentioned the city is busy constructing the centerpiece or as he called it the village for the papal mass and festival on the ben franklin parkway. Traffic is already being affected and commuters are already pretty frustrated. Lets take a live look at the parkway right above where john is standing from chopper 6hd this afternoon and as you can see the lanes of the parkway have been squeezed down just in time for the weekend and one of about 4 40 jumbotrons that will be lined in that area so that everybody can get a good look at whats happening either on stage or on the altar coming up next weekend. Preparations are under way but breaking this down for you on a map when it comes to traffic yesterday afternoon crews closed the inner drives of the parkway from 20th street to eakins oval, the outer drives will remain opened until next thursday when the rest of the traffic restrictions will go into effect. Commuters tell action news they expected some problems but not so soon. Many calling todays backups and confusion a nightmare. A mess. Its a mess. Its terrible. Shes late for school. Im paying for college. This is not free. But im stuck in traffic. Its going to get worse but its all for the pope so this is exciting, though he. I cant tell you one last car that would be on the he road, though, this one. That first woman we saw who was driving off just letting us know its a mess. Of course, this is just the beginning as we can expect more closures in the coming days as the city prepares for the big papal events on the parkway in, again, you guys, seven days and counting. Our coverage continues at 6abc. Com pope. We have a closer look at the highway and bridge closures of course while the pope is in town. You can also get an early look at how the ben franklin parkway will be transformed to welcome pope francis and we kind of saw it coming together but it is going to be gorgeous out there. So, a couple of inconveniences but i think we can pull together, brian and sharrie. You got it. Got to focus on the positives. You got it. Raw reaction today. Real and raw, thats right. Its time for a check of the accuweather forecast. Lets get outside, meteorologist adam joseph soaking up another sun filled day out there. Beautiful. No aggravation in the Weather Department whatsoever. All smiles here. Weve had a few clouds today that have popped back up with temperatures staying well above normal t its 84 right now in philadelphia, even warmer to the north in allentown at 85 degrees. Wilmington 83. And then that sea breeze with a serial win southeasterly windg the numbers into the upper 70s from cape may through Atlantic City and also beach haven. As we look at satellite and radar, again weve got a decent amount of sunshine but were finally seeing the pattern lowly break down. You can see some clouds near pittsburgh, some showers west of buffalo. That is the leading edge of a cold front thats going to slide through during the middle part of the weekend but for this evening, 79 degrees at 7 oclock. Lots of stars upstairs between 8 oclock and 10 oclock. Temperatures by 10 oclock slipping to around 70 degrees and as we look at the numbers to the west, its still warm in the ohio valley. However, brian, if you look to the far northwest, bismarck and omaha you see the big drop. Well let you know about this cooldown on the way and if theres any kind of rain coming up in that full accuweather forecast. Adam see you shortly. Thank you. It is a perfect day to play outside on the playground but for students in one part of Mercer County thats not an option because of some dangerous conditions there. New jersey correspondent Nora Muchanic live in our new jersey news room. Nora, this involves more than a dozen playgrounds. Reporter it does, indeed, 15 in all, brian, that are now off limits to Elementary School students in hamilton township. Inspectors say aging playgrounds there are presenting safety issues and so the School District decided to shut them down until repairs could be made. The playground at greenwood elementary is wrapped in orange fencing to keep kids from playing here. Based on reports from the first three playgrounds inspected, the hamilton School District has closed 15 of 17 Elementary School playgrounds. That after inspectors found Hazardous Conditions including equipment with stress cracks, holes, sharp edges and sliding board decks in danger of collapsing. Its scare tree hear that your kids are going to be on that kind of equipment and they can get easily hurt or even yourself can get hurt on it. Kids will be kids. Theyre going to call and get bumps and bruises but ultimately he everything has to be safe for them to play on. Reporter . Reporter the School District says the decision was a difficult one but it was the only option available to ensure the safety of students. These playgrounds are kept up by that the School District and not the township but the mayor is offering help to repair them. I know prioritizing limited resources is going to be a challenge but in seeing the public outcry about safety of children on playground equipment it is a priority. Recess period where the kids can go out and have that physical activity and stuff like that, to me thats part of a day. Reporter at klockner Elementary Students are still playing outdoors during recess but the playground equipment is off limits. We pay taxes, right, so lets use this money for good and fix this the issues so our kids can be safe. Reporter that School Board PresidentTony Celentano says repairing the playgrounds could cost almost 2 million. The challenge of course is to figure out how to pay for it. Live in our new jersey news room, im Nora Muchanic, channel6 action news. Alicia. All right, nora, thank you. Well, this morning there were some very happy hoagie lovers and coffee drinkers in center city lined up and anxiously awaiting the grand opening of the brand new wawa stores at corner of broad and walnut streets in center city. The opening Day Festivities featured music from the eagles pep band and a hoagie making competition as well as a visit from eagles mascot swoops. Mayor Michael Nutter was also there to help cut the ribbon. Now, more customers were happy for the new location. City Officials Say this is particularly exciting because it opened two months ahead of schedule just in time for the world meeting of families and the papal visit next week and the store also happens to be inside the pope francis Festival Grounds so it will be getting a lot of business. By the way wawa is hoping to serve pope francis a hoagie of this choice. They have established a special found help fight hunger in the philadelphia region. A portion of all hoagie sales in the city of philadelphia over the next week are going to be going to the francis fund. That special fundraiser runs from today through september 28th. By the way, this new location is the first wawa to offer indoor bar seating along the windows. The store also brought 80 new jobs to philadelphia. No official word yet on whether pope francis will take them up thon hoagie offer. Sharrie. How could you turn that down. Alicia, thanks. The eagles play their home opener this sunday and while fans would be excited for that no matter what this one has that big game feel to it. Thats because the Dallas Cowboys are coming to town. Kickoff is at 4 30 at lincoln financial field. Dallas won its first game of the season with a late touchdown over the giants. The eagles as we know theyre trying to bounce back from mondays loss atlanta. Well have much more on the matchup between the cowboys and eagles coming up in sports on action news at 5 30. Its time now, though, for the action news traffic report. Still trying to figure out what kind of hoagie the pope would get. What could he possibly order. Im thinking a pizza stake. Thats my guess. An italian. Matt pelman in the action News Traffic Center with the kind of messy conditions out there. I have a feeling that for him it might be complimentary. Free he. Good afternoon to you, brian and sharrie. You might say delays are not too shorty as we head home on this friday afternoon as we look outside along the vine street expressway we see the heavy traffic in both directions here by the ben franklin parkway toward the middle of your screen. Inner drive, of course, are blocked through september 29th as we head at the top of the hour. That is causing gridlock in and around this area. You can see some of the backed up traffic on some of the local streets and in the outer drivers of the parkway which are opened. Its those inner drives that are closed and are going to stay closed for about a week and a half. But you knew that if you were watching this morning on watching this afternoon. We already told you that so i hope you didnt get caught in traffic earlier today. Headed for the schuylkill on a friday afternoon you know youre going to get caught in traffic especially westbound this afternoon. This is the stacked up situation headed towards conshohocken. 52 minutes from the vine to the blue route. Everything is opened. No accidents at this point, just a lot of friday afternoon volume really slowing you down. We have a vehicle fire in Camden County in the northbound lanes of 295 approaching route 70 restricting traffic there giving us some slowing coming north of the white horse pike. In Monroe Township theres a downed pole along the eastbound side of three he 22, the black horse pike. The left lane out of commission at piney hollow road. Lets grab the ipad do commuter report on this finally friday afternoon and yeah, heavy traffic around eakins oval. Great time to download the waze app. Its free and it will tell you when were jammed along the parkway and surrounding area. Well check it again, brian and sharrie, in the next half hour. My friend thanks very much. Still ahead at 4 oclock today, an Atlantic City casino thats been shut down for months has a new owner today. Plus, its an attack on a referee in a High School Football game that got the whole country talking. Well, today, we heard straight from the players who were involved in that play. And a moment in a stadium crowd thats now going viral. Why former president jimmy carter and his wife have everybody buzzing this afternoon. Ava and i needed a little vacay. But we needed to watch our spending. Meaning i needed to watch nikki. Shes the spender. Im the saver. So, mobile banking from td bank helps me keep track. For both of us. She was just browsing. We gotta go. Im ava. Im nikki. And we bank human at td bank. What . And new york is my home. Theres no place like it in the world. And theres no time to see it like the fall. Take metro north to take in the beautiful fall foliage from high above the hudson. Swing a club at one of americas greatest courses. See spectacular sights underground. Or thrilling sights above it. Theres so many incredible ways to experience the fun of fall in new york state. Plan your trip at iloveny. Com. Theres something for everyone. Take a look at these bbq best cracked pepper sauce. Most ribs eaten while calf roping. Yep, greatness deserves recognition. You got any trophies, cowboy . Whoomp there it is uh, yeah. Well, uh, well theres this one. Best insurance mobile app . Yeah, two years in a row. Well ill be. Does that thing just follow you around . Like a little puppy the awardwinning geico app. Download it today. A friend of the alleged kill intercharlton chump killing is accused of lying to investigators. Joey meek hung out with dylann roof prior to the shooting. They said he never let police know roof was planning a racially motivated attack. Officials also say meek knowingly lied to an fbi agent about his knowledge of the plan after the shooting happened. Today meek pled not guilty to the charges filed against him. The border between serbia and hungary could be opened as early as tomorrow. It was shut down following clashes between Hungarian Police and refugees that are fleeing the middle east. Meanwhile questions are being raised about who started the fighting there on wednesday. Some have said that videos taken before the violence broke out show police luring migrants across the border and then attacking them. But officials are still calling the clash an armed attack against the police. Two texas High School Football players who were suspended for tackling a referee on the field are now speaking out and telling their side of the story. Victor rojas and Michael Moreno sat down with George Stephanopoulos on good morning america. The pair were caught on camera tackling referee robert watts while his back was to them. Dat boys apologized for their actions saying they were following the orders of their assistant coach, max breed. Breed was allegedly upset over watts missing calls and using racial slurs. Now, watts has denied using those slurs on the field but this morning the boys said thats not the case. He told one of my hispanic friends, he told him speak english, this is america and then did you hear that or did one of your friends he tell that you. No, i heard it. And then to an africanamerican on our team he told them the nword. He says thats a lie. Thats the honest truth. I wouldnt lie about this situation like just how bad its gotten the truth needs to be told. Breed has been put on paid leave and has yet to comment on the incident. Moreno and rojas will have a disciplinary meeting on wednesday to determine whether or not they will be expelled from school but sharrie its the video everybody has been talking about for the first time were hearing from the two students involved. Very interesting. Alicia, thank you. Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has been ordered to pay 4 million to the daughter of a woman who died under his care. The 74yearold gosnell is serving a life sentence after he was convicted of killing three babies who were born alive in his philadelphia clinic. They also say he had gave a woman an overdose of painkillers killing her. The settlement was awarded to mungers daughter. They say gosnell is broke and that neither he nor his clinic have insurance. Stockton University Says its selling the showboat casino building to philadelphia developer bart blatstein. The deal is worth 22 million and set to close in november. Stockton originally bought that property back in december for 18 million. The school planned to use it as a satellite campus. Blatstein has not yet said if he plans to reopen the showboat as a casino or run it as a nongambling property forecast. A look at the closing numbers and not a good note on which to end the week. Red arrows acrosstheboard, the dow down 290 points to close the week at 16,385. Nasdaq off 67 points. S p down 32 points at day. Former president jimmy carter may be battling brain cancer but the 90yearold showed hes not letting that illness affect his spirit. Carter and his wife roslyn were at the Atlanta Braves last night in their usual seats. The stadium kiss cam put them up on the big screen and look, its former president kissed the former first lady getting a huge cheer from the crowd. He flashed a smile afterwards. The braves, however, lost the game five to nothing but the carters stayed for all nine innings. Look at that. Watch it again. A great moment. It really is. Love to see he that. Glad to see hes doing well of course. Time now for a check of the accuweather forecast. Lets check back in with meteorologist adam joseph. A perfect way to end the week and to begin the weekend on sky6 live in cape may new jersey we have a few folks sitting on the sand, a very calm ocean as we havent really had much in the way of strong winds this entire week so we dont have that water churned up whatsoever. Temperatures at the shore a little bit cooler with that little bit of a sea breeze coming in. 71 cape may, 79 beach haven. Millville 81 degrees and as you bump farther away from the shore, wilmington, philadelphia, trenton in the low 80s and in the mid 80s for the lehigh valley, allentown and 1 degree shy of that in reading right now sitting at 84 degrees. As we look at satellite and radar, High Pressure has been in control with that sunshine but you can see it is beginning to break down as were looking to the west as a ribbon of clouds, moisture falling apart as its pushing east of chicago at the present time. Cold front just west of chicago with low pressure near omaha, nebraska and then to our south and east we have low pressure that is stuck off of the south carolinanorth carolina border. Both of these systems eventually are going to kind of converge on our region to throw a little more in the way of clouds our way but for this evening for 6abcs High School Huddle game of the week, the eagles at the colonials which is norristown at plymouth whitemarsh. Clear and comfy with a light wind at 7 oclock, 81 degrees. By 10 oclock, 7