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Washington State Route 516

According to Existingcountries, State Route 516 or SR-516 is a state route and partial freeway in the U.S. state of Washington. The road forms an east-west route south of Seattle and runs east from the suburb of Des Moines through industrial Kent. The route is 27 kilometers long.

Travel directions

The road begins as an ordinary residential street at the Port of Des Moines, a suburb of 30,000 inhabitants. From the junction with Interstate 5, the road is a highway. Here you descend into a valley where a lot of industry is located. In Kent, the road connects to SR-167, a north-south highway. After this, the SR-516 continues via the secondary road network to Maple Valley.

History

In the 1890s, a wagon road was built from Puget Sound to the base of the Cascade Mountains. The road was not paved until the late 1930s and became a state route in 1937. During the renumbering of state routes in 1964, the road was given its current number State Route 516. Presumably in the 1970s or 1980s, a 2×2 divided highway was constructed between I-5 and State Route 167.

Traffic intensities

The road is not really busy with a maximum of 39,000 vehicles per day. The route therefore fulfills no through-going importance.

Washington State Route 518

State Route 518 or SR-518 is a short state route and freeway in the U.S. state of Washington. The highway forms a short east-west route past the Seattle Airport, connecting the suburb of Burien with Interstate 5 and Interstate 405. State Route 518 is 6 kilometers long.

Travel directions

State Route 518 is an extension of Interstate 405 and begins at an interchange with Interstate 5 and continues west to a junction with State Route 509, north of Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The highway has 2×3 lanes and runs through suburban areas.

History

The road heads forward from local connections south of Seattle and was given its current road number in 1964. Construction of the highway began in the mid-1960s on the western section, with the connection to State Route 509 in Burien opening to traffic in November 1968. The rest of the highway opened in 1970 with 2×2 lanes. In 1990 the highway was widened to 2×3 lanes.

Traffic intensities

Up to 57,000 vehicles use State Route 518 every day.

Washington State Route 520

According to Anycountyprivateschools, State Route 520 or SR-520 is a state route and freeway in the U.S. state of Washington. The highway forms an east-west connection in the metropolitan area of ​​Seattle. The route is a major commuter route between major downtown Seattle and Bellevue. The route is 21 kilometers long.

Travel directions

The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge.

The highway begins just north of downtown Seattle at an interchange with Interstate 5, the highway from Seattle to Vancouver. The highway has 2×3 lanes here and runs over a harbor to the east. After a few kilometers there is an unused junction, which once a highway to the south should have connected. Then one crosses Lake Washington via the longest floating bridge in the world, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, which dates back to 1963. This narrow bridge has 2×2 lanes without emergency lanes. Then one comes to the eastern suburban area of ​​Seattle, surrounding the Bellevue subcenter. Just north of the center of Bellevue one crosses theInterstate 405. The road then continues across an industrial estate to Redmond, where Microsoft’s headquarters are located. The headquarters consists of a large complex and is located directly along the highway. The highway then ends in Redmond on the Redmond Way.

History

Construction of the new Evergreen Point Floating Bridge in May 2015.

In the late 1800s, places on the east side of Lake Washington began to develop. They were connected to Seattle by ferry. In 1913 the first car ferry service was introduced. After the opening of the floating bridges in 1940, urbanization east of Seattle increased rapidly. The demand for a second connection across Lake Washington also increased as a result.

On August 28, 1963, the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge—Evergreen Point, better known as the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge —opened . This is one of a number of floating bridges in the Seattle area. The highway was then about 11 kilometers long. In the early 1970s, the highway was extended a few miles east to 148th Avenue in Redmond. In the mid-1970s, an extension opened through Redmond as a super two, which was widened to a 2×2 lane highway in 1990.

Widening

The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge was replaced by a new 2×3 lane bridge between 2012 and 2016, including one HOV lane in each direction. The new bridge is also a floating bridge, and the widening of State Route 520 cost a total of $4.1 billion, of which $1.1 billion is for the replacement of the bridge itself. The first half of the bridge opened to traffic on April 11, 2016, the other half opened to traffic on April 25, 2016.

State Route 520 up to the interchange with Interstate 405 was also widened to 2×3 lanes, including HOV lanes, between early 2011 and mid-2014. The new HOV lanes opened to traffic on September 15, 2014.

Future

It is also planned to widen State Route 520 west of the bridge to 2×3 lanes until the interchange with Interstate 5. However, there is no money for this yet.

Traffic intensities

The highway is quite busy for a 2×2 highway with about 90,000 vehicles per day. In Bellevue, the highway peaks with 126,000 vehicles at the interchange with I-405.

Toll

The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge was a toll road between opening in 1963 and 1979, but the toll was subsequently lifted as the construction costs were recovered. Since December 29, 2011, tolls have been levied again to build a replacement bridge. The toll level depends on the time of day, so driving at night costs nothing and can go up to $3.50 in rush hour. There are two options to pay, with a transponder that Good to Go! hot and via license plate recognition, for which a surcharge of $1.50 per pass applies.