Washington State Route 522

State Route 522 marker

State Route 522

SR 522 is highlighted in red.
Route information
Auxiliary route of I-5
Defined by RCW 47.17.725
Maintained by WSDOT
Length: 24.64 mi[1] (39.65 km)
Existed: 1964[2] – present
Major junctions
West end: I‑5 in Seattle
  SR 104 in Lake Forest Park
I‑405 in Bothell
SR 9 near Woodinville
East end: US 2 in Monroe
Location
Counties: King, Snohomish
Highway system
← SR 520SR 523 →

State Route 522 (SR 522) connects Seattle to its northeastern suburbs. Its southern origin is at Interstate 5 at the north end of the Roosevelt neighborhood in north Seattle, where it is a city arterial, Lake City Way N.E. Upon crossing the Seattle city limits into Lake Forest Park, its name changes to Bothell Way N.E. It continues through Kenmore and into Bothell, where part of it is designated Woodinville Drive. East of downtown Bothell, SR 522 becomes a freeway as the first segment of the Bothell-Monroe Highway. It continues through Woodinville to an at-grade intersection with Paradise Lake Road. From there, it continues east as a two-lane freeway into unincorporated Snohomish County to Monroe, where it ends at the junction with U.S. Route 2. It is about 25 miles (40 km) long in total.

History

Once called the Red Brick Road, SR 522 originally connected Downtown Seattle to the towns of Lake City, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell, Redmond, Falls City and points east. From 1926 to 1930, U.S. Route 99 followed the present day SR 522 from Seattle to SR 527.[3] Rebuilt and expanded after World War II, it remained a connector from downtown Seattle through to Redmond until the construction of Interstate 5, when its origination point moved several miles north along that freeway into the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle.

After 1970, the easternmost portion of SR 522 from Bothell to Woodinville, Redmond, and North Bend was renumbered as State Route 202, and the portion of what had been SR 202 between Bothell and Monroe was renumbered as SR 522. A highly utilized bypass to reach Stevens Pass, 1,780 accidents, 1,359 injuries, and 47 deaths in 15 years resulted in the highway being included in the September 1995 Reader's Digest article "America's Most Dangerous Highways." The route has also been featured in a Dateline NBC story and a 2007 Forbes magazine[4] article for similar reasons.

Surviving fragment of the original Red Brick Road, between Kenmore and Bothell

Future

Highway 522 east of Woodinville was historically mainly an undivided, rural two lane highway serving farming communities to the east. Rapid suburbanization of Snohomish County and dramatic increases of population in Snohomish County suburbs like the city of Monroe and unincorporated Maltby have led to overcapacity and dangerous highway conditions.

The Highway 522 Corridor Improvements plan created by the Washington State Department of Transportation seeks to address these issues. Some of the projects listed below are fully funded/constructed and some have partial or no funding allocated yet.

Fales/Echo Lake Road interchange

A highway interchange with entrance and exit on and off ramps was constructed and completed in August 2006 to replace the signalized intersection that existed before.

Highway widening from the Snohomish River to US 2 in Monroe

The existing two lane undivided highway will be expanded to four lanes with a median to separate opposing lanes of traffic and a new bridge will be built across the Snohomish River. This project is fully funded by the 2003 Nickel Gas Tax passed by the Washington State Legislature and is scheduled to be constructed from spring 2009 to late 2014. [5]

Major intersections

CountyLocationmi[1]kmDestinationsNotes
KingSeattle0.000.00 I‑5 southInterchange; westbound exit and eastbound entrance
0.34–
0.41		0.55–
0.66		 To I‑5 / Roosevelt WayInterchange; westbound exit and eastbound entrance
3.215.17Northeast 125th StreetFormer SR 513
4.226.79 SR 523 west (Northeast 145th Street)
Lake Forest Park5.859.41 SR 104 west (Ballinger Way) to I‑5 – Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace
Bothell9.7715.72Bothell Way – EverettFormer SR 527
West end of freeway
11.0617.80 I‑405 – Bellevue, Everett
Woodinville12.0119.33 SR 202 east – Woodinville, Redmond
12.9020.76Northeast 195th Street – DuvallEastbound exit and westbound entrance
Snohomish 14.0522.61 SR 9 north – Snohomish, Arlington
East end of freeway, west end of divided highway
Maltby16.5626.65 SR 524 west (Maltby Road) / Paradise Lake RoadAt-grade intersection
East end of divided highway
 18.5829.90Fales Road, Echo Lake Road
Monroe24.1438.85West Main Street – Monroe
24.6439.65 US 2 – Everett, Wenatchee
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Finch, Mark, ed. (March 4, 2014). State Highway Log: Planning Report 2013, SR 2 to SR 971 (PDF) (Report). Washington State Department of Transportation. pp. 1620–1632. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  2. ↑ "47.17.725: State route No. 522". Revised Code of Washington. Washington State Legislature. 1970. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  3. ↑ US 99 Trunk - Highways of Washington State; Retrieved 6/25/12
  4. ↑ "America's Killer Roads". Forbes. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  5. ↑ Washington State Department of Transportation, WDOT SR522 Project Page, 2013

External links