The rollover of a semi-truck in the early morning on Tuesday, March 19, atop the Green River Bridge in Auburn resulted in a full blockage of all lanes on eastbound State Route 18.
The lanes didn’t reopen until about 7:30 p.m. as crews spent the day cleaning up debris at the site and fixing damaged guardrail, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. The closure impacted traffic on numerous local streets, including Kent.
According to the Washington State Patrol, no injuries resulted from the collision. The incident served as a single-vehicle collision, with the semi-truck rolling over, striking and damaging the bridge’s guardrail, and throwing its load of bottled water onto and from the bridge.
The Washington State Department of Transportation Incident Response team, Washington State Patrol, Washington State Department of Ecology, Valley Regional Fire Authority, Puget Sound Fire and bridge maintenance staff all responded to the scene to provide assistance.
Department of Ecology responders arrived at the scene to assist with leaking diesel. No ecological impacts resulted from the collision to the Green River, according to the department.
The Washington State Department of Traffic first reported an unspecified collision “blocking all lanes” on social media at 5:40 a.m. March 19. At 7 a.m., the transportation department reported a backup in traffic of “almost 3 miles,” with traffic diverted from State Route 18 using the Auburn-Black Diamond Road off-ramp.
At approximately 9:30 a.m., the WSDOT reported a decreasing number of backups on eastbound State Route 18 as teams continued to divert all traffic to Auburn-Black Diamond Road.
At 9:50 a.m., the transportation department reported crews “slowly making progress” to upright and remove the semi-truck from the scene.
As of 12:23 p.m., all lanes remained blocked, the transportation department reported, with debris remaining at the scene for cleanup and bridge maintenance inspecting the scene for damages, including guardrail damage, prior to the repair of the guardrail. A picture provided alongside the transportation department’s update showed crews having cleared the semi-truck from the scene, with debris from the truck and water bottles remaining scattered on the bridge and off the road.
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The scene of the semi-truck collision on SR 18 in Auburn posted at 6:49 a.m. Tuesday, March 19. (Courtesy of the Zone 3 PIOS.)
The scene of the semi-truck collision posted at 11:17 a.m. (Courtesy of Washington State Department of Transportation.)
The scene of the semi-truck collision posted at 11:17 a.m. Tuesday, March 19. (Courtesy of Washington State Department of Transportation.)
