Southbound Interstate 5 was backed up about 10 miles Wednesday afternoon from Green Lake to Georgetown because of a busted expansion joint.
The two right southbound lanes near the Albro Place exit were closed for a couple of hours after a steel joint cover broke loose and was extending above the roadway, according to Washington State Department of Transportation spokesperson Joe Calabro.
Lanes reopened at about 5:30 p.m., after crews repaired the joint. These incidents have happened before, and can cause damage or injuries if drivers smack into the exposed steel sheet at high speed, Calabro said.
Two lanes of SB I-5 could remain closed through the afternoon commute. That means this backup isn't going to get any better until later this evening. Postpone your travels if possible. pic.twitter.com/9935LxvDYS
A similar emergency clogged I-5 south of downtown, creating a 13-mile backup in November 2015, and a dangling truck chain pulled up a joint in May 2014, causing a 10-mile, two-hour traffic jam.
The original expansion joints, built in the mid-1960s, allow road decks to expand and contract with temperatures. The small gap is covered by a steel plate. When the steel plates clang under a vehicle’s car tires, that’s a clue they need to be tightened.
A major repave and replacement of the old joints is underway, for the I-5 decks just north of Wednesday’s incident, from approximately Yesler Way to Spokane Street. A silicone filling, and synthetic concrete, replace the crumbly old concrete edges and steel plates. WSDOT modernized the northbound lanes in this manner through Sodo, and they’ve been durable since that project in 2007.
Problems like these can be blamed on three decades of low maintenance budgets by the state Legislature, which have delayed needed retrofits for years while borrowing for a new Highway 99 tunnel, Highway 520 bridge, I-5 Tacoma widenings, an ongoing north Spokane freeway, and other megaprojects.
More recently, lawmakers and Gov. Jay Inslee approved partial increases with help from 2015-16 gas tax increases. Still, WSDOT Secretary Roger Millar estimated highways and bridges need an additional $475 million a year, or nearly twice the current maintenance spending, to achieve a state of good repair.
Some expansion joint replacements are planned this year in the far-south end of Seattle along I-5, though Calabro couldn’t immediately confirm whether the joint in Wednesday’s incident will be included.
“We have an aging transportation system and maintenance needs to be critically funded. For this particular event, I can’t really say what caused it,” Calabro said Wednesday.
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