Broken truck axle causes massive back up for Monday morning commute

UPDATE | 10AM

The accident scene was cleared and all lanes reopened around 9:45AM, but could take a while for the long back up to completely clear.

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ORIGINAL STORY

If you commute out of the Snoqualmie Valley toward the west, this morning has been beyond rough.

According to WSDOT, on Monday, December 10th, a cement/cement pump truck’s axle broke on westbound I-90, causing an accident. The truck came to a halt across two lanes of traffic just west of the Sunset Way exit near Issaquah (milepost 19). That was around 7AM. As of 9:10AM the right two lanes were still blocked as the WSDOT incident response team waited for a large tow truck to clear the accident scene.

As of 9AM the backup was reported to be 6 miles, stretching past the I-90/SR 18 interchange.  A tow truck was en route by 9AM according to WSDOT, but it was using congested westbound 90. At 9:30AM WSDOT said the tow truck was almost to the scene. Traffic cameras showed it using the shoulder to bypass traffic.

Snoqualmie Valley residents stuck in traffic are reporting it taking them 90 minutes to get from Snoqualmie to Issaquah. One North Bend commuter said it took her two hours to get to Issaquah. My own son got stuck in it and missed his final at UW – after leaving two hours before the scheduled test time.

Valley commuters are encouraged to use alternate routes – like SR 18 to Issaquah Hobart or SR 202. There was no ETA given for reopening the blocked right two lanes.

WSDOT incident response team and Washington State Patrol were on scene.

 

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Comments

  • That’s not a cement truck, its a concrete pumper and one of the notorious violators I had while working.

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