Between construction and a surge of people all moving to Oregon, like clockwork, every summer gets seemingly worse for traffic jams. This year looks to be particularly worse with Portland metro’s busiest road construction season in at least a decade. According to the latest news, well… There’s no good news for Portlanders.
According to Portland Monthly, we’re looking at July and August to be the worst with bridge closures in July and August.
“We realize that not everybody can take a six-week vacation, but if you can take some time off, you at least avoid part of the nightmare,” says Kimberly Dinwiddie, the community affairs coordinator at ODOT.
According to ODOT, if biking or public transit doesn’t work out, you can always walk. Yikes. All I have to say is I’m glad I’m not in the Portland area this year.
Courtesy of pdxmonthly, here’s what we’re lookin’ at:
7/8–23
The ramp from I-5 southbound to I-84 eastbound will completely close, 24/7.
7/25–8/6
The ramp from I-84 westbound to I-5 northbound will completely close, 24/7. During one of those weekends, ODOT will also close I-5 north between the Marquam and Fremont Bridges for paving.
7/27–8/27
I-84 westbound from Lloyd Center to I-5 south will be reduced to a one-lane crawl.
3 hours
An estimated I-84 commute from I-205 to I-5 between the hours of 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. Congestion could start as far east as Troutdale, north as far as Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge, and south as far as Sunnyside on I-205.
132,350
vehicles drive across the I-84 and I-5 interchanges daily.
Three hour wait times? Get outta here! Better start planning something now.
