Lumen Tchadja of Beaverton remembers the first words that ran through his mind Friday morning when he saw the freeway signs declaring the imminent closure of the Interstate 5 corridor through Southwest Portland.
Those words are unprintable, but let’s say he doesn’t expect it to be fun.
The freeway from the Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard exit to the Capitol Highway overpass is set to shut down completely from 9 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m Monday to rebuild an overpass over Southwest 26th Avenue.
That’s all lanes, north and south, over the four miles.
Tchadja, a contract freight trucker with almost five years of experience, expects to log more miles on the odometer than usual as he navigates the detours.
“It will have a huge impact on truckers,” the 32-year-old said as he refueled his semi at the Jubitz truck stop in North Portland. “The longer routes you take spend more fuel.”
That, in turn, means more pollution, he said.
Plus, it will be expensive, he said, because he and many other truckers who operate as contractors are expected to pay for gas out of their own pockets.
The Oregon Department of Transportation urges north-south travelers to use other freeways including Interstates 205 and 84, Oregon 217 and U.S. 26.
Mark Gibson, government relations policy adviser for the Oregon Trucking Association, said ODOT’s decision to completely close I-5 was the lesser of two evils.
The other way was to do a partial closure for weeks or months, said Gibson, who was a representative at a meeting in April 2022 when ODOT first presented the construction plan.
“This seemed like one of those ‘rip the Band-Aid off’ approaches,” he said. “It’s gonna be hard for a couple of days, but in the long run it’s going to benefit everybody.”
Mark Fitz, president of Portland-based fuel provider Star Oilco, said he and his company have been preparing for a hard weekend for the last two weeks.
They’ve been topping off the fuel supplies for customers who are normally served over the weekend, as well as planning to adjust their delivery driver schedules during the closure.
One driver, he said, will start later in the day so he can do deliveries after the congestion eases up — but that will keep him out past midnight.
“It reminds me a little of the eclipse,” Fitz said, referring to the gridlock that occurred as people in 2017 flocked to see the total solar eclipse from the best vantage points around the state.
“We expect to drive around I-5 by a lot of miles,” he said.
Many independent drivers won’t have the benefit of the type of preparation that Star OilCo has done, Tchadja said — largely because few of them have the time to stay up-to-date on website alerts in the regions they pass through.
They need to be on the road constantly to deliver their loads, he said.
Not only does he expect truckers to scramble for new routes, Tchadja said some detour routes, such as the Oregon 99 West, could lead to accidents due to low visibility and tight turns.
“I expect it to be crazy,” he said.
— Tanner Todd covers crime and public safety. Reach them at [email protected], or 503-221-4313.
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