A crash in the single southbound lane of Interstate 5 stopped traffic on the bridge for about 25 minutes, causing a backup that stretched north of 39th Street into Minnehaha and caused issues on arterial streets in downtown.
North and southbound traffic are sharing the southbound span of the bridge during repairs to the northbound span’s trunnion. The reduces the southbound traffic to two lanes in the morning and one lane in the evening.
The crash occurred at about 1:30 p.m., after crews shifted the median barrier to allow two lanes of traffic to flow north and one lane to flow south. With only one lane, the crash effectively closed the southbound freeway lanes until it can be cleared. The freeway reopened to traffic at about 2 p.m.
The morning commute went smoothly southbound through Vancouver on the first work day of the replacement project, though a crash on Interstate 84 in Portland caused a miles-long traffic jam.
