Advice for bypassing Skagit River Bridge?

[Nui]

I'm heading down I-5 next week but will need to bypass the Skagit River Bridge area.

Any advice on which route to take? What is Hwy 9 like for a nervous RV'er?

Nui

[n7bsn]

I also was getting a chuckle, but Maverick's work-around is probably even longer then the delays in just taking the detours. Which from the reports coming in are currently adding about an hour to the trip.

Now a number of schools and firms decided to not have people cross the bridge today, so there were fewer people. But it's also the Friday of a three-day weekend and the day people start figuring out the detours, so that adds time.

Personally, on a north/south run like the OP is taking about, just add time to your trip. The suggested south bound detour is NOT SR-9 (which is east of I-5, but rather a road to the west. They are doing this to avoid having the north bound and south bound detours over-lap or use the same roads

Some points to consider, avoid "heavy traffic" times, like Monday (all day), like morning and evening commute. Since the commute starts about 6AM, I would guess you best times would be between 10AM and 2PM, or after 8PM.

[MaverickBBD]

You have to excuse me but I just get a chuckle out of the Californians and the Canadian giving advice on how to detour the I-5 Bridge collapse. The detour depends a lot on where your final destination is located. After living in the area for nigh on fifty years I will tell you there IS no easy answer and there won't be for months. If it were me I would pay the money and take the Canadian ferry to Vancouver Island and then take the ferry to Port Angeles. Either that or cross at Osoyoos. Highway 9 is very narrow and curvy at best and has DEEP ten foot ditches on either side of the two lane road. Sorry folks but there is just no easy answer to this problem. At least Patty Murry is the ranking member on the Senate Highways and Transportion committee so maybe she can get some federal dollars thrown at the problem.

[msmith1199]

Actually it will be interesting to see how long it takes to get the bridge back up and running. Under normal government construction projects it would take three or more years to build a bridge there. But remember back during the Northridge earthquakes when almost all the freeways were shut down with damaged and collapsed bridges? They were rebuilding entire overpasses in 60 days. If this bridge were South of Seattle I'd say they'd have it back up in 6 weeks. Since it's North I bet it takes 9 weeks.

[katoomer]

Whatever they put in place for a detour will be there for a long time.

[robatthelake]

There will be a clearly marked Detour! Yes it will add some time to Your trip!

don't sweat it!

[the_bear_II]

If I were a nervous driver, I would head west on Hwy 20 and then come back to I-5 by heading east on Hwy 536. That should get you around the traffic backup and keep you on less crowded roads.

Of course that depends on if the highway dept uses that route as a detour to keep from gridlocking Burlington Road.

9 might be the worst best choice to avoid major traffic.

[msmith1199]

There is a four lane bridge next to the one that collapsed. It's a short detour to use that bridge. The question is how bad traffic will be getting around it.