📰 Inside CDN 04/20/26

From the editor’s desk: Heavy sighs of relief, especially around the south end of Bellingham, were heaved this week when the portion of Interstate 5 blocked for more than three weeks by a landslide reopened, finally stemming a daily flow of tens of thousands of cars and heavy freight onto Bellingham city streets via a lengthy detour.

The long closure wreaked havoc with regional travels and presented what seemed like clear safety issues along the detour routes, namely Samish Way and Old Samish Highway. Here's a bit of behind-the-scenes about how all that got reported in our newsroom:

In spite of the state’s usual entertaining fun-with-big-rocks social media posts, communications to media from responsible government parties were less than stellar, in my view. CDN reporters doggedly asked questions of officials with both the state, county and city traffic folks about timing and especially detour issues, and got consistently inconsistent answers.

WSDOT officials initially seemed indignant that CDN kept noting their lack of even a ballpark estimate on how long the repair work might take — an obvious question asked by the public. (Nobody in our readership, and certainly not in our newsroom, expected a precise date, but a general, "weeks or months, not days" prognosis would have helped people, public agencies and private companies plan accordingly.)

The agency also insisted it had done literally everything in its power to address complaints about freight traffic on the in-city detour route: Namely, it put up signs in Skagit County suggesting that northbound semi-truck drivers should detour in Skagit County to Highway 9 — a directive most of them clearly chose to ignore, given the daily parade of semis clogging up narrow-laned Samish Way for miles.

WSDOT spokespeople said the agency has no authority to enforce a detour, even for weight restrictions or safety issues, and referred CDN to the Washington State Patrol. That buck passed, WSP told us it couldn't really do this, either, and would try to provide extra safety patrols.

For their part, Bellingham Public Works officials were very quick to respond, acknowledging the detour safety issues, and expressing that their hands were largely tied — which they were — beyond extra city police safety patrols on Samish Way (we did see some). They also said Samish Way was not appropriate for freight traffic. Whatcom County officials, the same day, said it was. (Perhaps they could meet for coffee and sort this out before it happens again?)

From my own perspective, all of this was far less than satisfying in terms of relaying factual information to the public on a regular basis. As noted in our pages, the entire response seemed limp compared to the sort of emergency response issued by state and local officials when a similar major disruption occurred with the collapse of an I-5 bridge at Mount Vernon in 2013.

The public in these circumstances — not just an inconvenience, but a serious transportation issue with safety connotations — deserves a coordinated response from public agencies. Frankly, this one seemed wholly uncoordinated.

We learned some valuable lessons that will inform future reporting. CDN will be doing follow-ups about the slide response and cost. The incident also renewed our resolve to take a fresh look at the likelihood that our region will become, in essence, a series of isolated onshore islands after a major plate-tectonic earthquake that could cause multiple I-5 bridges to fail — and perhaps launch a slew of landslides exactly like this one, if not far worse. Stay tuned.

Inside CDN readers had mixed opinions about the slide response. Voting in our own (highly unscientific) poll posted here last week, slightly more than half of respondents said they thought government communication about the slide was good, with clear directions about detours, along with regular updates. But the other half spread across the board, pointing toward the need for improvement, including better information about heavy freight traffic, second-layer impacts from the detours, and other matters. Duly noted, and thanks for voting.

I was excited to see CDN’s launch this week of another strong enterprise series, “In Real Life,” which debuted in Friday’s print edition and online as our Sunday Read, with a piece about young folks immersing themselves in birdwatching. The occasional series, written by CDN Lifestyle Editor Cocoa Laney, will delve into the steps local next-geners are taking to connect in human ways, reflecting a backlash to the impersonal digital world that seems to be rapidly gaining strength globally. Future pieces will touch on subjects such as a retro-analog movement in technology, and other topics. If you have thoughts or suggestions, pass them along to Cocoa at [email protected].

Lots of buzz — and hard work — around the newsroom in recent weeks with the near-completion of “Respect the Rez,” CDN’s first shot at a full-scale documentary. Built by CDN visual journalist Finn Wendt and Sports Editor Nick Zeller-Singh, with editing by Jaya Flanary, our managing editor/visuals, the work will debut in May at a community showing at Lummi Nation, followed by a pair of sold-out public screenings at the Pickford on Grand on May 16 and 17. Thanks to those who bought tickets.

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