SEATTLE – On Thursday, July 28, 2022, Interstate 5 experienced an explosion which led to a multi-hour shutdown. According to Seattle Fire Department, a welding vehicle caught fire and exploded for almost 30 minutes. No injuries were reported.
The damaged Mercer Street exit sign had to be removed. Tom Pearce, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Transportation, stated “We had a little bit of a concrete kind of burn and it’s called the laminating work. Just kind of a layer comes loose and so we need to put some asphalt on that as a temporary patch and then we will come back later on a scheduled evening to make a more permanent fix.”
