The south Commercial Street exit off Interstate 5 just south of Salem and the Southeast Delaney Road on-ramp will be closed through Sept. 23 in preparation for a project to widen the highway to three lanes.
The Oregon Department of Transportation closed the exit Monday as crews prepare for the first phase of the project, which includes expanding the southbound lanes.
Crews are working to shift traffic around exit 249. While the exit will reopen later this month, other traffic changes will be in place for up to two years as ODOT works on the expansion.
The project, which is in its first phase, will eventually include a replacement of the southbound I-5 bridge over the northbound Commercial street off-ramp, a realignment of Battle Creek Road Bridge over I-5, the construction of two sound walls, a dedicated lane for the Delaney Road off-ramp, and new pavement and permanent striping on both lanes, ODOT said in a release Thursday.
David House, ODOT spokesman, said the first phase of the project will take about two years and is mostly paid for with $50 million from the federal government. The main purpose of the project is to address congestion and bottlenecks caused by trucks slowed down by the hilly terrain south of town.
“For several years, this section has been two lanes in each direction on I-5. And on these hills, the trucks, especially the fully loaded trucks tend to slow down. And generally it is really good to have, on two lane interstates where there is a steep hill, a third lane for climbing, for trucks,” House said. “What happens is, during those peak traffic hours, that little bit of slowdown by a few trucks can slow everything down and create a bottleneck. The project is to widen I-5, add that third lane, in those hills between Kuebler Boulevard and Delaney Road.”
To widen the southbound lanes, ODOT will eventually shift both northbound and southbound traffic on the stretch of I-5 near Delaney Road.
Northbound I-5 traffic will shift onto the exit 249 off-ramp, then merge back into northbound lanes north of the exit. Southbound traffic on I-5 will be routed into northbound lanes through the construction zone. Commercial Street traffic will merge with southbound traffic in the shifted lane.
Those moves will keep traffic off of the bridge that goes over the Commercial Street exit, allowing ODOT to replace it with one wide enough to accommodate the third lane, House said.
The current closure allows crews to prepare for the longer-term traffic shifts. Once the closure lifts Sept. 23, traffic will be able to exit I-5 at Commercial Street, but won’t be able to get to Commercial from Delaney Road.
As a detour, drivers could either go to the Kuebler Boulevard exit or take Delaney Road to Southeast Battle Creek Road, or to Southeast Sunnyside Road.
While the first phase of the project will widen the southbound side of I-5, the second phase will widen the northbound side of the road, House said. ODOT is still figuring out the cost and timeline for the second phase of the project.
Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.
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Joe Siess is a reporter for Salem Reporter. Joe joined Salem Reporter in 2024 and primarily covers city and county government but loves surprises. Joe previously reported for the Redmond Spokesman, the Bulletin in Bend, Klamath Falls Herald and News and the Malheur Enterprise. He was born in Independence, MO, where the Oregon Trail officially starts, and grew up in the Kansas City area.
