Traffic was a mess Thursday morning following a major crash on southbound Interstate 205 in Portland and subsequent less serious crashes in Vancouver that compounded the problem.
“It was just a lot of stuff going on all at one time,” said Michael Southwick, a Washington State Department of Transportation traffic operations manager and an engineer.
Vehicles were backed up on I-205 and Interstate 5 for miles. The traffic troubles started shortly after the Portland Police Bureau reported the I-205 crash at 6:30 a.m. near Northeast Prescott Street. The bureau’s post on Twitter said at least two lanes had been closed, but three of four lanes were shut down a short time later.
According to the Oregonian, Portland police spokesman Lt. Brad Yakots said the crash involved a bicyclist and vehicle. The bicyclist was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. No citations were issued.
Portland police had estimated that all lanes would reopen by 8 a.m., but an hour was added to the closure as the morning continued. All lanes had reopened by that time, but the crash, and subsequent crashes, caused a lasting impact on the morning commute.
The crash in Portland “happened at a bad time, the peak commute time for early morning. It backed up, which we typically don’t see, (state highways) 14 and 500. They were affected quite a bit,” Southwick said.
Maps showed stop-and-go traffic for drivers on highways 14 and 500 in Vancouver as they approached both freeways. The line of vehicles on southbound I-5 at one point reached Salmon Creek. On I-205 southbound, traffic was slowed or stopped as far north as the Barberton area, nearing the I-5 and I-205 merge.
The backups on the freeways snarled traffic in downtown Vancouver and created a backup on Fort Vancouver Way near Clark College. Fourth Plain and Mill Plain boulevards were also backed up near the freeways.
C-Tran’s Vine buses were caught in the traffic jam and ran late, and the agency dropped some departures because of traffic.
At about 9 a.m. a collision on northbound I-5 near Evergreen Boulevard left a jackknifed tractor-trailer blocking the left and center lanes just south of the Mill Plain exit. It was cleared in about 30 minutes.
WSDOT reported a collision around 10:30 a.m. on westbound Highway 14 near 164th Avenue. The crash blocked both lanes for emergency vehicle access.
Transportation department response trucks were out Thursday morning, attempting to direct vehicles involved in crashes quickly to the shoulder of the road and to keep vehicles moving. Unfortunately, traffic was so bad it wasn’t really moving for a long time anyway, Southwick said.
Five hours after the crash, things had somewhat gotten back to normal. Maps showed slow traffic persisting on I-5, with the line of vehicles reaching Hazel Dell. The delay on I-205 was not as bad — the traffic jam started around East Mill Plain Boulevard.
The secondary crashes compounded the issues with traffic flow, Southwick said.
“Anytime your main streets, like I-5 and I-205, where everything is filtering in, when they’re that backed up and congested, it’s going to happen. It’s somewhat expected when you have a big incident,” he said.
Traffic apps commuters use can help spread out vehicles, away from the freeways and highways, but they can also send a larger than usual number of vehicles to less-used, arterial roads, said Tamara Greenwell, WSDOT’s communications manager in Southwest Washington.
Travel time signs displayed such long commute times that drivers may have thought it better to get off the roads and work at a coffee shop or from home, Southwick said. He noted his department’s ongoing Active Traffic and Demand Management project, which is basically the implementation of more over-lane electronic signs that warn commuters of reduced speeds and crashes down the road.
Bigger changes are in store for southbound I-5 next year. WSDOT will install meters on five onramps — at Northeast 78th Street, Main Street, 39th Street, Fourth Plain Boulevard and Mill Plain Boulevard.
“Those are the types of projects we’re trying to implement to help with these kind of scenarios. The area is growing, and you’re probably going to see more of these types of projects out there,” Southwick said.
The projects should help reduce the number of secondary collisions prompted by an initial, bigger incident, Greenwell said.
