Washington State Route 18
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| State Route 18 |
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| Defined by RCW 47.17.075, maintained by WSDOT | |||||||||||||
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| Length: | 28.41 mi[1] (45.72 km) | ||||||||||||
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| Formed: | 1964 | ||||||||||||
| West end: |  SR 99 in Federal Way |
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| Major junctions: |
 SR 161 in Federal Way I-5 in Federal Way SR 167 in Auburn SR 164 in Auburn SR 516 in Covington SR 169 in Maple Valley |
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| East end: |  I-90 near Snoqualmie |
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State Route 18, also known as SR 18 or Highway 18, is a 28-mile long state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, which connects State Route 99 in south King County with Interstate 90. It runs northeast from Federal Way, through Auburn, connecting to Green River Community College, then through Covington, Maple Valley, over the 1,375 ft Tiger Summit, and then terminates at I-90 about eight miles east of Issaquah near Snoqualmie.
Highway 18 is a dangerous roadway due in part to the heavy truck traffic between I-5 and I-90. For the past several years, work as been done on a project to turn SR 18 into a limited access highway and widen it to four lanes, two in each direction. Three-fourths of the highway upgrade has been completed; it now has four lanes from Federal Way to Issaquah Hobart Road. The last one-fourth of the expansion is 7 miles which includes the climb up to Tiger Summit and the last 2 miles to Interstate 90 with a freeway-to-freeway connection. The project still needs $267.5 million in funding and construction is set to be completed by 2015.
SR 18 forms part of one possible route for a proposed future Interstate 605, though the idea faces considerable opposition. However, an appropriate measure would be to renumber the highway as an Interstate highway after completion of the widening, since it links Interstate 5 to Interstate 90.
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[edit] Exit list
The entire route is in King County.
| Location | Mile[1] | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Way | 0.00 | SR 99 (Pacific Highway) |
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| 0.21 | SR 161 south (Enchanted Parkway) – Puyallup |
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| West end of freeway | |||
| 0.52 | I-5 – Seattle, Tacoma, Portland |
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| 1.30 | Weyerhaeuser Way South | ||
| Auburn | 3.21 | West Valley Highway | Former SR 181 |
| 3.40 | SR 167 – Kent, Renton, Puyallup |
Eastbound exit to SR 167 south is via West Valley Highway | |
| 4.35 | C Street Southwest | ||
| 4.68 | SR 164 east (Auburn Way) – Enumclaw, Auburn |
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| 6.94 | Auburn-Black Diamond Road | ||
| 9.30 | Southeast 304th Street, Southeast 312th Street | ||
| Covington | 11.97 | SR 516 (Southeast 272nd Street) – Covington |
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| 13.65 | Southeast 256th Street | ||
| 16.22 | To SR 169 / Southeast 231st Street – Maple Valley |
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| 18.49 | 244th Avenue Southeast | ||
| 20.84 | Issaquah, Hobart | ||
| East end of freeway | |||
| 24.11 | Tiger Mountain State Forest | ||
| 28.41 | I-90 – Seattle, Spokane |
Interchange | |
| 28.41 | Snoqualmie Parkway | Continuation beyond I-90 | |
[edit] Cultural references
A band local to the Kent/Covington/Auburn area called Daphne Loves Derby wrote a song entitled Midnight Highway which sings "I miss our midnight rides on highway 18, 18 is gone."
