I-5 pothole causes hours of delays, allegedly damages tire
Dec 17, 2015, 11:48 PM | Updated: May 7, 2016, 11:50 pm
If you’ve been stuck in traffic on northbound I-5 through downtown Seattle over the past few days, this might be why.
The Washington State Department of Transportation needed to make emergency repairs to pavement at an expansion joint near Olive Way.
WSDOT’s Harmony Weinberg explained why the repairs like this need to happen right away.
“After it was brought to our attention, we didn’t want more damage to cars or more damage to I-5,” she said.
Repairs began Tuesday, after WSDOT received a report of a pothole from Washington State Patrol. The department sent out engineers to do a temporary repair. Weinberg says to think of the first fix as a “band aid.”
Here's our temporary pavement fix NB I-5 near Olive Way. Crews will return overnight for permanent repairs. pic.twitter.com/tyLW3bBVc8
— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) December 17, 2015
On Wednesday, crews were sent back out to do permanent repairs, but not before one driver reported damage to his vehicle from debris on the roadway.
@wsdot_traffic pic.twitter.com/B8Nn1thpnx
— Zach Pohlman (@ZachPohlman) December 16, 2015
As crews inspected the roadway around the joint, they realized it needed more attention than expected.
“Our overnight crews noticed the damage was a lot worse than we originally thought,” Weinberg said. “And that’s why the repairs extended into the [Thursday] morning commute. Trust me, we all drive too and we don’t want to impact the morning traffic, but our roads are old and when they need to be fixed, they need to be taken care of.”
Three lanes of I-5 were closed. Closures lasted until just after 7 a.m. Thursday morning. They opened about two hours later than expected.
