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Specialized crews continue to drill and anchor steel dowels 15 to 25 feet into the rock face at the site of a March 19 slide that closed northbound I-5 south of Bellingham. These dowels will help stabilize the slope. (Washington State Department of Transportation)
Specialized crews continue to drill and anchor steel dowels 15 to 25 feet into the rock face at the site of a March 19 slide that closed northbound I-5 south of Bellingham. These dowels will help stabilize the slope. (Washington State Department of Transportation)
Specialized crews continue to drill and anchor steel dowels 15 to 25 feet into the rock face at the site of a March 19 slide that closed northbound I-5 south of Bellingham. These dowels will help stabilize the slope.
A 4-mile stretch of northbound Interstate 5 at North Lake Samish Drive outside Bellingham will reopen Thursday, nearly a month after a landslide slumped over the roadway, the Washington State Department of Transportation said Friday.
Drivers heading north on I-5 have been advised to take detours on Highway 11, also known as Chuckanut Drive, or Highway 9 since March 19 when thousands of cubic yards of debris roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool slid off a slope above the interstate, including at least one rock larger than a bus.
Related Northbound I-5 closed indefinitely near Bellingham due to rockslides (March 21)
Pending final evaluations by geotechnical engineers, WSDOT said, all lanes will open by 5 a.m. Thursday.
Crews have been clearing debris and are beginning the final stages of stabilizing the slope, WSDOT said.
Working mostly by hand scaling loose rock, drilling and installing dowels, the crews have been working their way carefully down the slope to dislodge or secure stable rock as they remove debris, WSDOT said.
Drivers on southbound I-5 should expect a rolling slowdown at 8 a.m. Sunday while crews remove some of the largest slabs of the slope, including that bus-sized boulder, WSDOT said. Crews have recently installed grouted steel dowels to anchor unstable rock as well.
The reopening will be delayed if final inspections reveal any areas that still need addressing, WSDOT warned.
Until then, northbound drivers should continue to take detours before they reach the closure between North Lake Samish Drive and Highway 11.
Kai Uyehara: 206-652-6419 or kuyehara@seattletimes.com. Kai Uyehara is a breaking news reporter at The Seattle Times.
