Drive past the Camas Slough this week and you'll see why orange signs are already up. Starting tomorrow, Monday, August 10, 2026, crews from Combined Construction, Inc. begin repairing and repaving the deck of the West Camas Slough Bridge, a structure built in 1966 and last widened and repaved in 2013. It carries an estimated 30,000 vehicles a day, and it has needed this work for a while: heavy rain in late 2024 chewed up an already worn surface badly enough that WSDOT had already posted reduced speed limits and "Rough Road" warning signs before this repaving even started.
For the next several days, that means real detours. Weekend closures run Friday evening through Monday morning with one direction open at a time, and the first stretch of overnight work is specific: westbound SR-14 closes from 8 p.m. Tuesday, August 11 to 6 a.m. Wednesday, August 12; eastbound closes from 9 p.m. Wednesday, August 12 to 7 a.m. Thursday, August 13; and a third closure runs from 10 p.m. Thursday, August 13 into the early morning of Friday, August 14. Eastbound traffic gets rerouted through downtown Camas via Exit 12, with the on-ramp at Southwest 6th Avenue closed. Westbound traffic detours via Exit 14, with the on-ramp at Southeast Union Street closed.
If you're touring homes in Camas this month, or timing a listing around how the neighborhood "feels" on a weekday drive, you're seeing a distorted picture. That distortion happens to be a small, useful preview of a much bigger commute story that most buyers comparing Camas to Washougal or Vancouver haven't priced in at all.
The Statute Nobody Mentions on a Listing Sheet
Camas doesn't have much public transit to fall back on. C-TRAN's Route 92 runs on 30-minute frequency during the week, and the on-demand Current service fills some gaps, but the city's own draft commute planning documents are blunt about the underlying reality: connecting south to Oregon jobs is the priority, because roughly half of Clark County residents commute south for work, according to the city's draft Commute Trip Reduction plan for 2025 through 2029. For most of those commuters, that means SR-14 east to I-205, then south across the Columbia on the Glenn L. Jackson Bridge into east Portland.
Here's the detail that doesn't show up on a Zillow listing or a Redfin market snapshot: that crossing is protected by law. When the Washington legislature approved the framework for tolling the neighboring I-5 bridge back in 2023, it attached a condition that's still on the books. Carl See, deputy director of the Washington State Transportation Commission, confirmed again in mid-2026 that tolling remains prohibited on the Washington side of I-205. Camas's free route to Portland isn't free by accident or by lack of political interest. It's free by statute, while the bridge six miles west is headed the opposite direction.
What's Actually Coming to I-5, and When
The I-5 Interstate Bridge Replacement program has been telegraphing tolls for years, but the timeline has moved more than most casual coverage suggests. Back in 2023, project team estimates put "pre-completion tolling" on the existing twin bridges as early as spring 2026, with a rough per-crossing range of $2 to $4. A more detailed traffic and revenue study that year, analyzed by the Portland transportation research group City Observatory, modeled an average toll starting near $2.80 per car in that early phase, rising to $3.30 by 2033 when a new bridge is projected to open, and climbing toward $4.34 by 2045, with peak-hour rates running higher still.
That schedule has since slipped. In March 2026, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson announced the project's cost had climbed to $7.65 billion and construction would not begin until 2028, not the earlier target. The program's own cost estimate page, updated in 2026, now lists the earliest anticipated tolling date on the Interstate Bridge as 2028, tied to that newer construction start. Final toll rates and policies are still undecided: a joint meeting of the Oregon and Washington transportation commissions in June 2026 indicated the public won't see specific rate proposals until late spring or early summer of 2027. The most recent concrete milestone came July 1, 2026, when federal agencies approved the project's Amended Record of Decision, clearing the way for permitting and contractor selection, according to KPTV.
So the toll is real and coming. It's also further out, and less finalized, than a lot of 2023-2024 headlines implied. That gap matters if you're weighing a Camas versus Vancouver decision based on outdated timelines.
The tension worth sitting with: the same statute that keeps the Camas side of the river free is, according to the program's own traffic modeling, also expected to send more cars onto it.
What Camas's Premium Is Actually Buying
Vendor price data on Camas doesn't fully agree with itself right now, which is its own signal. Over the three months ending in May 2026, Redfin reported a median Camas sale price of $826,000, down 4.3% year over year, with homes taking a median of 43 days to sell compared to 17 days the prior year. Zillow's home value index for Camas showed $754,563 as of May 31, 2026, down 1.3% over the past year. A separate brokerage report pulling directly from NWMLS closed transactions put the June 2026 Camas median at $629,900, essentially flat year over year. That's close to a $200,000 spread across three legitimate sources measuring the same city in the same season, which is a good reminder not to anchor a decision on whichever number a single portal happens to surface.
Washougal, just east on the same SR-14 corridor, was running closer to $650,000 as of January 2026 per Redfin, though that figure is now more than half a year old and softer as a current comparison point. What hasn't moved much is the commute math: five-year American Community Survey estimates put mean commute times at roughly 24 to 25 minutes for Camas residents and 25 to 26 minutes for Washougal residents, a gap of a minute or two.
| Camas | Washougal | |
|---|---|---|
| Recent median sale price | $629,900–$826,000 (vendor range, spring–summer 2026) | ~$650,000 (Redfin, January 2026) |
| ACS mean commute time | ~24–25 minutes | ~25–26 minutes |
| Primary Portland-bound route | SR-14 to I-205 (Glenn L. Jackson Bridge) | SR-14 to I-205 (Glenn L. Jackson Bridge) |
Both cities share the identical route south. If commute times are nearly interchangeable and the bridge access is the same, a meaningful part of the Camas premium isn't buying a faster trip to Portland. It's buying downtown proximity, school-area preference, and, whether buyers realize it or not, continued confidence that the free crossing stays free under a law that has held since 2023.
The Diversion Problem: Free Isn't the Same as Fast
That confidence has a catch. The same 2023 Level 2 traffic study that projected toll pricing on I-5 also modeled what happens to the crossing next door. Currently about 140,000 vehicles cross the I-5 bridges daily. City Observatory's analysis of the program's own modeling shows that figure falling to roughly 70,000 per day once tolling begins, with the bulk of that displaced traffic landing on I-205.
That's the part of the story a Camas listing sheet will never mention. The corridor that keeps Camas commutes toll-free is the same corridor modeled to absorb a large share of toll-averse drivers from Vancouver and beyond over the next several years. The price advantage of "free" may hold indefinitely under current law. The time advantage of "free and fast" is a separate question, and it's the one actually in play as tolling approaches, this month's Camas Slough Bridge detours included.
What To Do With This If You're Deciding Between Camas, Washougal, or Vancouver
- Drive the SR-14 to I-205 route at your actual commute hour more than once, on a normal week, not during the current bridge detours running through mid-to-late August.
- If Camas's premium over Washougal matters to your budget, get specific about whether you're paying for schools and downtown walkability or for corridor access that Washougal shares equally.
- Watch for the bistate toll rate proposals expected in 2027 before assuming today's price gap between Camas and Vancouver-side neighborhoods will look the same in three years.
- Treat this month's construction traffic as a data point, not a verdict. It's temporary. The toll timeline behind it is not.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly
When does I-5 bridge tolling actually start? As of the program's mid-2026 updates, earliest tolling is anticipated in 2028, tied to a newly funded construction phase. Final rates aren't expected to go out for public comment until spring or summer of 2027.
Could Washington ever toll the I-205 crossing at the Columbia? Not under current law. Washington State Transportation Commission deputy director Carl See reaffirmed in 2026 that tolling remains prohibited on the Washington side of I-205. Changing that would require new legislation, not just a program decision.
How long will the SR-14 Camas Slough Bridge detours last? WSDOT's repaving work begins August 10, 2026, with rotating overnight and weekend closures. Check WSDOT's project page for current dates before scheduling weekend home tours near downtown Camas.
If you're weighing Camas against Washougal or a Vancouver-side neighborhood and want to talk through how the bridge timeline, the price data spread, or this month's detours actually apply to your specific move, I'm glad to walk through it with you. Reach out to Casey Hilton for a straight read on the Camas market and a plan built around your commute, not just the median.
