Mud Slide Closes I-5 in Washington and Snarls Traffic for Over 3 Hours
A large mudslide closed I-5 in Washington State yesterday, making traffic crazy for hours!
WSDOT Closes I-5 for Mudslide
Yesterday (4-10-23) WSDOT reported a large mudslide on I-5 in Washington State near Woodland early in the morning. All 3 northbound lanes were closed for almost 4 hours while crews tried to clean the slide from the roadway. The closure happened near milepost 24 according to WSDOT.
No Detour for Traffic After Mudslide
WSDOT had no option but to reroute traffic to I-5 southbound because there was no detour available to move traffic around the mudslide. Washington State Department of Transportation called on people to avoid the area while they cleaned the roadway with no estimated time to reopen I-5 northbound.
Angry People in Traffic on I-5
People started venting online on Twitter after they were stuck in traffic sitting for 2 hours because of the mudslide. One user posted "Bro it’s been 2 hours you got I5 shut down going northbound. This is a f@$&ing joke." Then pictures were released by WSDOT of the slide and tempers seemed to calm soon after.
White Pickup Truck Crashed Into a Mudslide on I-5
Pictures released from WSDOT on Twitter seem to show a white pickup that crashed into the slide. The mudslide occurred on a corner of I-5 where it was difficult to see by traffic and consisted of rocks, mud, and trees from the hillside above the highway. You can see in the pictures that tons of rock, wood, and mud needed to be cleared before the lanes could open.
The driver of the truck must be ok because there was also no mention of any injuries on reports about the mudslide by WSDOT or the Washington State Patrol.
I-5 Northbound Closed for Almost 4 Hours
All northbound lanes on I-5 were closed early in the morning while traffic backed up from milepost-24 at exit-22 all the way past exit-16 for half of the day. WSDOT posted pictures of the traffic on their Twitter telling people to avoid the area with no ETA for reopening the I-5 northbound lanes.
Eventually, all the lanes were cleared and I-5 was reopened around 11 am, almost 4 hours after the first report by WSDOT. From the look of the pictures, 4 hours was pretty fast to clean up the mess and open all northbound lanes again. See the entire WSDOT Twitter post below.