Northbound Interstate 5 will be closed at Exit 60 near Toledo for two nights this week — Wednesday, Sept. 28, and Thursday, Sept. 29 — for crews to demolish the northbound section of the state Route 506/Toledo-Vader Road overpass that was damaged by an oversized logging truck last week.
Southbound I-5 will remain open during the closures, as bridge girder replacement work initially planned for Thursday night has been pushed into next week, according to WSDOT.
The Washington state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) announced the schedule change and the additional closures Tuesday evening.
The closures will begin both nights at 9 p.m. and end at 6 a.m. the following morning. One lane of southbound I-5 will close at 8 p.m. on Thursday.
Crews will remove the railing and the guardrail of the existing structure Wednesday night and will completely demolish the northbound span of the overpass Thursday night, according to WSDOT Project Manager Paul Mason.
WSDOT will announce new dates for the bridge girder work later this week, Mason told The Chronicle on Tuesday.
The overpass itself has been closed since an oversize load damaged the southbound span of the bridge on July 6, 2021. Contractors have so far demolished the damaged southbound section of the bridge and placed pedestals that the breakers will eventually sit atop, according to Mason.
Both directions of I-5 have been intermittently closed over the summer as crews began work related to the replacement of the damaged southbound span of the overpass.
An oversize load traveling northbound on I-5 struck the underside of the overpass at approximately 10 a.m. on Sept. 22, closing the freeway for several hours as crews cleared the wreck and evaluated the damage to the bridge.
