Live power lines in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 in Tacoma on Thursday forced the closure of two lanes, causing significant backups and traffic delays.
The incident was reported at about 8:55 a.m. on I-5 near Portland Avenue East, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). The right two lanes of the interstate and the ramp to Portland Avenue East was blocked.
It was causing about four miles of traffic backups at 10:05 a.m., Washington State Patrol Trooper Robert Reyer said. He said the City of Tacoma would likely need to shut off the live power line for it to be removed so lanes could be reopened.
The blocked lanes and off ramp were reopened by about 10:53 a.m., according to WSDOT.
Reyer said the lines came down when a WSDOT contractor’s crane touched power lines and caused them to fall to the ground, reaching across the off ramp and into lanes of traffic.
The downed power lines caused a temporary outage in the area, according to Tacoma Public Utilities’ outage map. About 45 TPU customers lost power.
