VANCOUVER, Wash. (KPTV) – Beginning Friday night, the southbound lanes of I-5 near Portland’s Rose Quarter will be closed for up to five weeks.
Officials predict travel times could be two to three times longer than usual and traffic could back up into Washington. FOX 12 spoke to commuters about how they are bracing for impact.
The I-5 closure in Portland is expected to bring major traffic, and backups could even stretch across the Interstate bridge into Vancouver.
“That’s going to be very inconvenient,” said Lauren Woody. “I can only imagine that’s going to just mess up people’s timelines, and commutes to work and commutes to seeing family, or whatever they have to get to.”
Jeff Burmester lives in Vancouver but works in Portland and said his new possible commute time has skyrocketed.
“If they are correct saying it could be up to four times at long, that could be up to two hours for me, or longer, like there’s no chance that’s happening,” said Burmester.
Some are rethinking trips entirely to avoid the gridlock.
“If I were driving in that direction any more than once a week I would be livid,” said biker Bevyn Rowland.
“I feel like we see kind of chaos on a daily with driving on I-5, it can be super convenient or super messy, I suspect this will be on the messier side,” said Woody.
But for commuters like Burmester, the next five weeks will be a test of patience.
“Most people are pretty resilient, pretty flexible, but if you have to shift your hours where you have to leave super early in the morning that’s not fun for anyone. How long will you have to do that? If it’s truly only five weeks it’s manageable but it’s a big ask for a lot of people,” said Burmester.
To learn more about how to minimize delays and find alternate routes coming from the Vancouver area, go here.
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