The Northwest’s largest highway, Interstate 5 (I-5), is open again after repair work to clear a massive landslide was completed a day ahead of schedule. The roughly 30-meter-high slide, triggered by heavy rains, swept down the evening of March 19, covering the southbound lanes near Bellingham with bus-sized boulders and blocking a 6.5-kilometer stretch of highway for nearly a month.
The cleanup and slope-stabilization work was extremely challenging. Specialized crews, including climbers, removed unstable rock layers by hand and with pneumatic tools, and 96 steel anchors were installed to secure the slope. About 7,000 cubic meters of debris — enough to fill two Olympic swimming pools — were hauled away over the month. The more-than–$1 million operation was limited to daylight hours for safety, and traffic was detoured onto alternate routes.
The timely reopening is critical because I-5 is the main transportation corridor linking Seattle and Vancouver, Canada. The reopening coincides with the start of peak tourist season, including the popular Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, which annually draws hundreds of thousands of visitors, many of whom travel this route.
Based on: Northbound I-5 reopens ahead of schedule near Bellingham