U.S. Route 2 in Washington - History

History

US 2 follows the route of several wagon roads and early state highways that themselves followed the route of the Skykomish River and the Great Northern Railway, a transcontinental railroad that was completed in 1893. A wagon road from Snohomish to Skykomish was completed in the late 1880s, while another wagon road along the Wenatchee River from Leavenworth to Sunnyslope was completed by 1904. The state of Washington began maintaining State Road 7 in 1909, traveling from Peshastin to Spokane on what would become the Sunset Highway and US 2. The easternmost segment of US 2 within Washington, from Spokane to Newport, was added to the state highway system in 1915 as State Road 23 and renamed to the Pend Oreille Highway two years later. State Road 7 was renumbered to State Road 2, part of an east–west highway connecting Seattle to Spokane. The Stevens Pass Highway was opened on July 11, 1925, and traveled from Everett along the Skykomish River and over Stevens Pass towards Leavenworth. The highway was transferred to state maintenance from the Department of Highways in 1931 as State Road 15.

The United States Highway System was adopted by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) on November 11, 1926, and included a shorter US 2, traveling from Bonners Ferry, Idaho to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and several routes along the modern route of US 2 in Washington. The corridor of US 2 was signed as US 10 from Peshastin to Spokane and US 195 from Spokane to Newport, co-signed with State Road 2 and State Road 6, respectively. The Washington primary and secondary state highway system was adopted by the Washington State Legislature on March 17, 1937, and the three highways that comprise the present route of US 2 were included in the system as Primary State Highway 15 (PSH 15) from Everett to Peshastin, PSH 2 from Peshastin to Spokane, and PSH 6 from Spokane to the Idaho state line in Newport via a short branch route. US 10 was relocated to a southern route in 1939, crossing the Columbia River at Vantage, and the former route was replaced by US 10 Alternate during the early 1940s. A proposal from representatives of the highway departments of Idaho and Washington to extend US 2 to Everett was considered by the AASHO's U.S. Route Numbering Committee in January 1946, but was vetoed. The proposal resurfaced during the committee's meeting on December 20, 1946, and was approved as a replacement of US 10 Alternate from Everett to Bonners Ferry and US 195 from Spokane to Newport.

The Washington state highway system was changed to its current "sign route system" beginning in January 1963 with a state highway renumbering. Under the new system, Interstate highways, U.S. routes, and state routes replaced the primary and secondary highways and were codified under the Revised Code of Washington in 1970. US 2 was re-routed around various cities over the next several decades onto limited-access highways to reduce congestion, beginning with the construction of the current westbound Hewitt Avenue Trestle east of Everett in the 1960s, moving traffic off an existing wooden trestle that would be replaced with a new eastbound trestle in 2002. US 2 was routed north of Wenatchee onto the Olds Station Bridge, renamed in 1991 to honor Richard Odabashian, over the Columbia River in 1975, while the former alignment was designated as SR 285 in 1977. The present two-lane expressway north and east of Snohomish was completed in 1983 and was intended to also include an unfinished bypass of Monroe. US 97 had its concurrency with US 2 extended from Sunnyslope to Orondo along the east side of the Columbia River in 1987 after US 97 was moved onto the former route of SR 151. The Stevens Pass Greenway, which became a National Forest Scenic Byway on April 14, 1992, was promoted as a designated National Scenic Byway on September 22, 2005. Within Newport, US 2 had an unsigned spur route that traveled on the southbound lanes of ID-41 on the Idaho state line until 1997, when SR 41 was created to avoid confusion. The intersection between US 2 and US 97 east of Peshastin was replaced by a new diamond interchange completed in October 2008 as part of general improvements to the two highways' concurrency from Peshastin to Sunnyslope. The current interchange between US 2 and the North Spokane Corridor, a spur route of US 395, was opened in November 2011 to coincide with the opening of the northernmost 5.5 miles (8.85 km) of the future freeway.

Recently, WSDOT began planning a series of 56 projects to improve the US 2 corridor between Snohomish and Skykomish, where the highway is two lanes wide and has been the site of over 2,600 collisions between 1999 and 2007 that caused 47 fatalities. A study, conducted by WSDOT in 2007, divided the corridor into four segments, each with a specialized development plan. The study suggested the expansion of the limited-access highway from Snohomish to the western city limits of Monroe to four lanes, including an interchange at Bickford Avenue that is expected to be completed in fall 2013. WSDOT planned the re-routing of US 2 onto a northern bypass of Monroe with an extension of SR 522 to a roundabout with the bypass north of Monroe. From Monroe to Gold Bar, US 2 would be expanded to a four-lane highway, with a roundabout connecting the highway to the city of Gold Bar, and become a two-lane highway with wider shoulder lanes to Skykomish.