Washington State Route 525
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| State Route 525 Number based on  I-5 |
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| RCW 47.17.735 | |||||
| Length: | 31 mi (50 km) | ||||
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| Formed: | 1964 | ||||
| South end: |  I-5/I-405 in Lynnwood |
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| Major junctions: |
 SR 99 in Lynnwood  SR 525 Spur in Mukilteo SR 526 in Mukilteo |
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| North end: |  SR 20 near Coupeville |
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State Route 525, commonly known as SR-525, Highway 525, 525, on Whidbey Island it is known as The Highway and in Mukilteo as Mukilteo Speedway, is a state highway in the U.S. state of Washington. It extends almost 31 miles from Lynnwood in the east to an area near Keystone in the west, not counting a portion that is carried by the Washington State Ferries run from Mukilteo on the mainland to Clinton on Whidbey Island.
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[edit] Route description
SR-525 begins as a freeway, incorporating lanes extending from the northern terminus of Interstate 405 and ramps from its junction with Interstate 5 near Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. From there it travels due north toward a newly completed overpass over and interchange with State Route 99. From there, 525 becomes a boulevard, the Mukilteo Speedway, and travels through the commercial and industrial areas of south Mukilteo, past Paine Field. At the end of the boulevard section, 525 splits. The main route heads to Whidbey Island via ferry, and a spur, also known as Paine Field Boulevard, links 525 to State Route 526, bypassing many signals and other roads while also shortening the route for people traveling to Everett and Boeing's Paine Field Plant.
As SR-525 heads northwest from the split, it shrinks to a two-lane city street until it reaches the western terminus of 526. There, a central left-turn lane is added. As 525 makes its way down the embankments of Mukilteo toward the ferry terminal, it loses its turn lane and gains a ferry holding lane. (Travel in the holding lane is not permitted unless a backup has formed.) At Goat Hill Road, the ferry holding lane becomes a lane for ferry traffic only. (All vehicles bound for the ferry must use the lane, and one may not enter the lane from that point on.) Traffic for Whidbey Island is funneled into a holding area, while local traffic may continue to the waterfront. (Both the holding area and the local street carry the designation of SR-525.)
On the Whidbey Island side, 525 climbs a gigantic hill, which sometimes causes new drivers of manual transmission vehicles to stall. Once the grade levels, the now four-lane highway plus central turn lane runs through Clinton. Just north of Clinton, the highway narrows again to two lanes and becomes a rural highway. It travels westward through the communities of Bayview and Freeland before turning north. It then passes through Greenbank and ends at its junction with State Route 20 in Keystone, just west of which is the ferry dock for Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula.
[edit] Child routes
State Route 525 Spur (2001-present)
There are several ideas of creating another child route of SR-525 to serve the city of Langley using existing roads. Commonly the proposed designation of this route is Business 525.
[edit] History
- Prior to the 1964 Highway Renumbering, SR-525 on Whidbey Island was known as SSH (Secondary State Highway) 1-D, and it extended north to Anacortes. When the North Cascades Highway was completed in the early 1970s, State Route 20 was extended. It replaced SR-525 from Anacortes to Keystone and then was carried over the Keystone-Port Townsend ferry route to the Olympic Peninsula.
- On the Mainland, SR-525 was known as SSH-1I, which traveled the Speedway to Mukilteo Blvd. and was then routed into Everett to an intersection with Broadway (US-99/SR-99). The section of SSR-1I from Mukilteo to Everett became State Route 526 after the great renumbering. Later it was moved to its current freeway route.
- Prior to the completion of Interstate 5 and Interstate 405 SSH-1I had its eastern terminus at United States Highway 99 (aka PSH-1, now SR-99). After I-5 was completed, SSH-1I was extended to the freeway over local roads until 1980.
- From 1980 to 2001 SR-525 used a 1/2-mile section of SR-99 to connect the Mukilteo Speedway section to the freeway section from I-5. This was deemed a bottleneck in traffic, and was replaced with the current overpass structure.
- Prior to a construction project from 2000 to 2004, SR-525 was two lanes wide, with a left-turn lane from SR-99 to Paine Field Boulevard.
[edit] External links
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State routes in Washington related to I-5 |
| SR 500 - SR 501 - SR 502 - SR 503 (Spur) - SR 504 (Spur) - SR 505 - SR 506 - SR 507 - SR 508 - SR 509 - SR 510 - SR 512 - SR 513 - SR 515 - SR 516 - SR 518 - SR 519 - SR 520 - SR 522 - SR 523 - SR 524 (Spur: Edmonds, Lynnwood) - SR 525 (Spur) - SR 526 - SR 527 - SR 528 - SR 529 (Spur) - SR 530 - SR 531 - SR 532 - SR 534 - SR 536 - SR 538 - SR 539 - SR 542 - SR 543 - SR 544 - SR 546 - SR 547 - SR 548 - SR 599 | |
| Former or proposed state routes: SR 514 - SR 517 - SR 537 - SR 540 | |
