Drivers on Oregon's Interstate 5 south of Salem will soon get a break from a historic bottleneck when a new $55.5 million widening project is completed in the coming year.
Oregon Department of Transportation photo
Phase one of the project south of the state capital includes widening the southbound stretch of I-5 between milepost 249.5 and 248.9 — Kuebler and Delaney roads — from two lanes to three lanes, replacing and reconstructing two bridges and an on-ramp and adding a roundabout and new sound walls.
The Salem-based K&E Excavating is the project contractor.
"It will help eliminate a congestion point," said Derek Moore, resident engineer. "I-5 is three lanes all the way from Portland through Salem. As you leave Salem, it narrows down to two lanes, then it widens to three lanes a bit, and then back to two. This project takes out that section of two lanes, so it stays three lanes longer. The key point is that there are some pretty steep hills through there, and you get trucks trying to pass each other, and it slows down things for everybody."
Work on the project began in August 2024, with traffic management on the interstate the major concern. "We were fortunate that there was a kind of a bypass, a detour that we were able to use, so we're able to shift traffic away from where the majority of the work is happening," Moore said.
Oregon Department of Transportation photo
The detour is on an old I-5 alignment that previously served as an exit/entrance ramp. Crews were able to upgrade the ramp so it could be used as part of the detour, Moore said. "So now, we're able to put northbound traffic onto that and put southbound traffic onto the old northbound, so there's a crossover for southbound traffic, and that left us with the southbound alignment free from traffic, so you can do all the work there more efficiently."
The location sees approximately 64,000 vehicles in both directions daily, said Mindy McCartt, an Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) public information officer. Traffic was often brought to a standstill by the bottleneck, combined with the trucks attempting to climb the hill.
"One of the ways I describe this particular area is you have to keep commerce moving, especially on I-5," McCartt said. "Commerce is money for the state, and we've got to keep goods and services and people moving through the state, and I-5 is an artery for the state.
"The other thing I like to say is, if you ask an engineer how long it's going to take a bridge, they're going to give you a specific timeline. Then, you tell them they can't shut down traffic, and they triple that number. It's not always just about how long it takes to build the thing; it's how long it takes to build the thing without disrupting the traffic and the movement within Oregon."
Oregon Department of Transportation photo
Since the start, construction crews with K&E Excavating have completed most of the widening, demolished and replaced the bridge over Commercial Street and are building the replacement Battle Creek Bridge.
"It's a single-span girder bridge," Moore said. "We just got done setting all the girders from one end to the other, so they span over I-5. We did three nighttime closures of I-5 while we were setting the beams, sending traffic on a detour route through Salem. That's the majority of the work right now. The bridge is a good winter work because it's not highly dependent on weather."
Equipment on the project includes a Link-Belt RTC-80100, as well as a Grove GMK6350 all-terrain crane.
Coming up, crews will finish work on the Battle Creek Bridge, bring in materials to raise the elevation for a new roundabout at the Battle Creek Road SE and Wiltsey Street SE intersection and finish paving.
"Once that's done, we'll switch southbound traffic back to where it'll be permanently northbound, I-5 will open without traffic and we'll be able to pave and do some repairs through permanent northbound alignment while there's no traffic on it," Moore said.
The major portions of the project are scheduled for completion in the summer of 2026, with the official completion set for the spring of 2027. A second phase for the northbound lanes is planned but unfunded. CEG
