Washington State Route 9 - History

History

The current route of SR 9 began as a road extending from Grace (today Woodinville) north to Snohomish, first appearing in a 1895 map. The Snohomish to Arlington segment was not built until after SR 9, but between Arlington and Sedro-Woolley, there was a highway by 1911. The first section of the roadway to be included in the state highway system was the current SR 542 concurrency, which became a branch of State Road 1 extending from Bellingham to Mount Baker in 1925. Secondary State Highway 1A (SSH 1A) was established in 1937 and ran from Primary State Highway 2 (PSH 2) in Woodinville north to Sumas and west to PSH 1 in Blaine. A branch of SSH 1A connected the main highway to the Canadian border. Between Lynden and Nooksack, SSH 1A was realigned in 1951 and in 1953, SSH 1A between Blaine and Sumas was deleted. SSH 1E became concurrent with SSH 1A in 1957 when it was extended east through Arlington to Darrington. A third concurrency was added in 1961 when PSH 16 was extended west, concurrent in Sedro-Woolley, to Fredonia. During the 1964 highway renumbering, a new system of highways, sign routes, was introduced and was co-signed with the existing primary and secondary state highways. SSH 1A became SR 9, but SSH 1A was still signed until 1970. In 1965, SSH 1A / SR 9 was shortened from Woodinville to SR 202 in Grace, which was not complete yet. By 1966, the highway was not complete between Lake Stevens and Arlington and in 1970, SR 202 became SR 522.

Since 2004, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has completed nine construction projects on SR 9. The Lake Stevens weigh station, located on the west side of the highway at the Sopher Hill Road intesersection was expanded to serve two trucks at once in late 2005. The U.S. Route 2 (US 2) interchange was modified to use New Bunk Foss Road as an onramp and traffic signals were added in January 2006. The roadway was repaved between Snohomish and Lake Stevens and also guardrails and turn lanes were added in 2006. On 22 November 2006, WSDOT opened a new alignment of SR 9 between Nooksack to Sumas that bypassed three 90-degree turns. A roundabout was added to the SR 538 intersection east of Mount Vernon in summer 2007. Between SR 522 and SR 524, the highway was widened from a 2-lane road to a four-lane divided highway in 2008. A curve on the roadway north of Arlington was straightend in late 2008 and turn lanes were added to two intersections near Bryant.