Two northbound lanes of Interstate 5 were closed for hours on Wednesday near Woodland while road crews fixed a hole in the center lane of the North Fork Lewis River Bridge.
Washington Department of Transportation crews performed emergency work on the bridge, including assessing the underside of the structure and filling the hole with concrete, which required hours to cure.
The agency discovered the hole Tuesday afternoon and temporarily patched it.
“While this hole repair was successful today and is now complete, WSDOT is aware of deck deterioration on this bridge and deck rehabilitation is scheduled for 2023,” spokeswoman Kelly Hanahan said Wednesday afternoon in an email.
The lanes were closed at Milepost 19.87, just south of Exit 21 in Woodland, beginning at 9:30 a.m. and were open by 3 p.m.
At one point in the afternoon, the work backed up traffic for miles, with vehicles slowing almost as far south as 179th Street.
