More traffic problems, this time from Bellingham.
A massive mudslide shut down northbound I-5 for nearly 12 hours.
A bang, just as the earth gave way, trapping a truck and a passenger car with people inside.
These people managed to get out safely. This happened around 4:40 a.m. Sunday morning, just north of the Iowa Street exit on northbound I-5.
A portion of southbound I-5 was closed for several hours.
But northbound I-5 at Milepost 254 was closed most of the day.
KIRO 7 got a beautiful picture of where this slide took place. That’s because it happened just north of the quite popular Alabama Street pedestrian overpass. So it was very easy to see.
The ground moved early this Sunday morning just above I-5, trapping two vehicles and the vehicles inside them, including a semi, under piles of dirt.
“There were people outside already investigating what was going on,” said a neighbor who did not want to be identified. She says she heard a bang just after 4:30 in the morning. She looked outside and saw her neighbors inspecting the damage.
“And they were concerned that the land had given way,” she said.
The country succumbed, state officials say, amid a deluge that meteorologists had warned us about.
“We had a lot of rain overnight and into the early morning hours,” said WSDOT spokeswoman RB McKeon.
She says this is what caused the massive amount of debris to spread across all northbound lanes of I-5 and a portion of the southbound roadway near the Iowa Street exit.
“Crews estimate about 2,000 cubic yards,” McKeon said, which is more than 400,000 gallons of dirt.
Bellingham Fire reported that a crew member removed some of the carpet padding from a 21-foot culvert. This caused the water to rise near the slide. WS DOT crews were shoring up the slide area until engineers could get a good look at it. It turned out to be quite a spectacle for the residents of Bellingham.
“Just a good indication of how vulnerable our highways are due to a small spill,” said Hugh Conroy, a Bellingham resident since 1996. “Yes, a small culvert is blocked.”
That and apparently a lot of rain. The highway is open again.
But the Ministry of Transport’s work is not done yet. Engineers are expected to be back here Monday morning to help determine next steps.
