Eleven Hours, Hydraulic Lifts and Four Trucks: How a Semi Trailer Wedged Under a Bridge Was Finally Removed on Interstate 5

It took several hours, four trucks and a number of hydraulic lifts, but a truck wedged under the state Route 506 overpass over Interstate 5 Tuesday was finally removed early Wednesday morning.

“Getting that truck out was very, very complicated,” said Bart Treece, spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation. “It is more complicated than just letting the air out of the tires.”

The bridge appears to have escaped with minimal damage. So far, only a few scrapes have been found, Treece said. WSDOT crews are continuing to assess the damage, but the overpass is open for traffic.

“We’re fortunate there wasn’t more damage to the overpass and no one was hurt,” he said.

The truck got stuck just before 4 p.m. Tuesday, and was freed at about 3 a.m. Wednesday.

The right lane of Interstate 5 near Toledo was closed for several hours Tuesday as WSDOT crews worked to free the trapped semi.

Bridge inspectors arrived not long after the accident and began working to find a way to dislodge the truck without doing more damage to the overpass.

Details about the incident itself emerged as crews worked to move the truck.

“Apparently this was at pretty low speed,” Treece said.

The driver reportedly slowed down to about 25 miles per hour in an apparent attempt to squeeze below the bridge, he said.

The Washington State Patrol is investigating the incident. A representative from the State Patrol did not immediately return a request for comment.

The height of the truck in Tuesday’s crash was listed as 16 feet, Treece said. Because it was an oversized load, the semi was required to have a pilot car.

“It turns out that … it’s a little taller than 16 feet. The exact height of that is to be determined,” he said.

The bridge had a clearance posted on signage as 14 feet, 9 inches. The actual height of the bridge is closer to 15 feet, 1 inch, Treece said, but is signed at a lower height to account for paving projects.

The semi was hauling a gas-powered turbine in a shipping container. It was similar cargo that being carried by different truck on Dec. 8 when it collided with the Koontz Road overpass, Treece said.

The driver of the semi in that incident, Mark J. Lautenslager, 53, of Tacoma, is facing negligent driving charges, according to the Washington State Patrol. Koontz Road is still closed over I-5 and will likely need repairs that will further impact traffic, Treece said.

Ernie Cook, owner of Cook and Sons Trucking Inc. in Toledo and a trucker for more than 30 years, watched as crews assessed the damage Tuesday evening.

Cook has a shop off Koontz Road, and said his business has been affected by that crash. He told The Chronicle he is unhappy that truckers have damaged two I-5 overpasses in a week.

“It just gives us all a bad name,” Cook said.

Treece said several initial attempts to get the truck unstuck Tuesday night were not successful.

“It was wedged in there pretty good,” he said.

First, crews let the air out of the tires, but they were concerned about the structural integrity of the bridge.

Then they called commercial tow trucks for help.

“We got a couple of them to try and yank that thing out,” he said.

But that didn’t work either.

“We got some hydraulic jacks and tried to actually lift the bridge, the overpass, to free it,” Treece said. “That didn’t work initially.”

Eventually, crews removed the truck by lifting the bridge with the jacks, pulling the truck with three commercial tow trucks and pushing it from behind with a WSDOT truck. Crews also had to cut a portion of the shipping container.

Treece said truckers should avoid going under overpasses when their cargo’s height exceeds the clearance of the bridge.

“Freight haulers are responsible for the safe transit of their cargo on state highways and interstates,” he said. “If that freight hauler would have gotten off at Toledo-Vader Road they could have easily gotten back on the highway.”