Washington State Route 6 - History

History

The first state highway to extend along the route of SR 6 was State Road 19, which was designated in 1913. During a 1923 renumbering of the state road system, State Road 19 became State Road 12, which ran from Megler north to Raymond and east to Chehalis. Primary State Highway 12 (PSH 12) replaced State Road 12 when the Primary state highways were created in 1937; PSH 12 didn't begin in Megler, but began in Kelso. Between Raymond and Chehalis, PSH 12 was paralleled by numerous railroads that have changed over time. In 1951, the Northern Pacific Railway followed the route from Raymond to Chehalis, but by 1958, the Pe Ell Prairie Railroad replaced Northern Pacific from Pe Ell to Dryad and the Chehalis Western Railroad, now the Chehalis Western Trail, replaced Northern Pacific between Adna and Chehalis. In 1968, the Chehalis Western Railroad no longer operated in the Adna area and the last railroad to parallel current SR 6 was the Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad, which runs from Adna to Chehalis. During the 1964 highway renumbering, PSH 12 was split into U.S. Route 830 (US 830), US 101 and SR 6. The only other highway to intersect SR 6 was SR 603, the only auxiliary route of the highway, which was established in 1964 and decommissioned in 1991.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has since arranged small construction projects to improve the roadway. After the Great Coastal Gale of 2007, the road southwest of Pe Ell was filled with debris near an unstable slope. WSDOT later closed the highway between Elk Prairie Road and Meyer Road on 17 December 2007 and started to reopen SR 6 during daylight hours on 29 December. On 28 January 2008, repair work began on the slope and on 4 February, the road was opened for 12 daylight hours. Nighttime closures were lifted starting 13 February and the roadway was fully reopened on 16 March. During the stabilization of the slope near Pe Ell, construction started on 19 February on another slope located near Frances that was finished in late April. A bridge built in 1925 over the South Fork of the Chehalis River west of Chehalis is currently being replaced with a newer structure and construction started on 25 August 2008. Closures began on 5 January 2009 and girders were placed on March5 . The construction is scheduled to end by fall 2009.