Freeway lanes reopened on northbound Interstate 5 more than three hours after a landslide blocked traffic at Milepost 24 near Dike Access Road in Cowlitz County, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. Lanes reopened at 6:30 p.m.
Before lanes reopened, traffic was diverted southbound from all northbound on-ramps from the 179th Street interchange near the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds to Woodland, according to Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn. Motorists had been advised to delay travel, turn around or use alternate routes.
“WSDOT crews are on site, evaluating the stability of the hillside to see if it’s safe to remove debris and clear the roadway,” according to a statement from WSDOT.
Finn said ilani casino at Exit 16 had opened its parking lots for use by commercial vehicles to stage while waiting for the freeway to reopen.
The landslide, on a hillside north of Woodland that’s particularly vulnerable to slides, followed days of rain that dropped more than 2.2 inches of rain in the Woodland area, according to National Weather Service data.
Landslides closed that section of northbound Interstate 5 in 2015 and 2017. The 2015 landslide prompted a major hillside stabilization project that lasted into 2016, before another landslide blocked traffic again in 2017. The exact location of the latest slide relative to the other two was not available Monday afternoon, but WSDOT described it as north of Dike Access Road — the same general area as the previous slides.
According to Finn, at least two vehicles were caught in the slide but there are no injuries reported.
Traffic was backed up into Clark County to south of the ilani casino exit by 5 p.m. The landslide was reported about 3:15 p.m. Monday.
Traffic on side roads was slowed Monday, including on La Center Road and Pacific Highway, though no official detour was in place.
