Northbound Interstate 5 reopens

The northbound lanes of Interstate 5 south of Bellingham were reopened Wednesday.

The lanes had been closed between the North Lake Samish Road and Highway 11/Old Fairhaven Parkway exits since March 19, when a landslide brought thousands of cubic yards of debris onto the roadway.

According to a news release from the state Department of Transportation, before the lanes were reopened geotechnical engineers performed a final inspection to confirm the stability of the slope.

The reopening came after crews worked seven days a week to remove the debris and to stabilize the hillside.

During the nearly four weeks since the slide, specialized crews rappelled down the slope to inspect it and dislodge loose slabs of rock using hand and air-compression tools.

They also drilled 2,065 linear feet of holes into the rock face and anchored 96 steel dowels 15 to 25 feet deep to stabilize the slope.

As they methodically worked their way from the top of the slope down, other crews began to remove about 7,000 cubic yards of debris - enough to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools - from along northbound I-5.

All this work was done under the supervision of geotechnical engineers, who analyzed the slope as work progressed, searched for potential unstable areas and developed plans to anchor them with steel dowels so northbound I-5 could safely reopen.

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