Divers extracting sunken I-5 bridge
Train service offers alternative to snarl
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. – Divers will probably work a couple more days removing the collapsed section of the Interstate 5 bridge from the bottom of the Skagit River, the Washington State Department of Transportation said Friday.
It’s slow work, using heavy equipment to break up the pavement in cold, murky water, spokesman Travis Phelps said. Workers also have to take care to preserve girders the National Transportation Safety Board needs for its investigation of the May 23 accident.
When the NTSB clears the site, the state Transportation Department will inspect piers. If they’re OK, a contractor can fill in a collapsed section with a temporary 160-foot span.
The department is still on track to reopen two lanes of the freeway in each direction by mid-June, Phelps said.
The bridge crumbled when a girder was struck by an oversize truck. The truck made it off the bridge, but two other vehicles went into the river. All three people were able to escape their vehicles. They were rescued with minor injuries.
The bridge was used by 71,000 vehicles a day. Traffic is being detoured through Mount Vernon and Burlington, causing delays for trucks and tourists traveling between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.
A new daily passenger train service started running from Seattle to Bellingham on Friday morning, offering commuters an alternative to the traffic snarls. The round-trip service is a Sounder commuter train, provided by Sound Transit on a temporary basis.
The department plans to replace the temporary span and restore the bridge in the fall. There are no plans for an all-new structure to replace the 58-year-old bridge.