A commercial truck struck the SR 167 bridge near Pacific just before noon Tuesday.
The accident caused significant damage to the girder, dislodging chunks of concrete and exposing rebar.
A reduction in traffic lanes because of damage caused disruptions on the highway that runs through Seattle.
The incident occurred when the truck, traveling on 3rd Avenue Southwest, hit the bridge with its hoist unit, which was raised too high.
“It was too big to fit. It hit a girder and damaged that significantly enough that we’ve had to reduce the traffic configuration over the bridge while we figure out a repair strategy,” said Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) representative RB McKeon.
WSDOT reduced SR 167 northbound from three lanes to one, affecting traffic flow for about a mile as a result of the damage.
“Our bridge inspectors could see the damage was significant enough underneath that we needed to make the decision to close those lanes,” said McKeon.
Valley Recycling, the company that owns the truck, declined to comment on the incident.
Meanwhile, WSDOT is working on developing a repair strategy, which they hope to finalize by the beginning of next week.
“We’ve got some other bridge closures in this larger geographical footprint, so it puts pressure on the system. I think the good news right now is that the bridge is not fully closed, so traffic is still able to flow over it,” added McKeon.
WSDOT told KIRO 7, “It is WSDOT’s customary practice to pursue third-party damages when our infrastructure is damaged and we will do that in this case.”
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