Route Description
SR 525 begins as a freeway, incorporating lanes extending from the northern terminus of Interstate 405 and ramps from its junction with Interstate 5 near Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. From there it travels due north toward an overpass (built in 2000) over an interchange with State Route 99. From there, 525 becomes a boulevard, Mukilteo Speedway, and travels through the commercial and industrial areas of Mukilteo, passing the Southern end of Paine Field's runway 34L. In the North, the boulevard exits the right-of-way to create Paine Field Boulevard, signed as SR 525 Spur links SR 525 to SR 526, bypassing many signals and other roads while also shortening the route for people traveling to Everett and Boeing's Paine Field Plant..
As SR 525 heads Northward from the spur route's terminus, it shrinks to a two-lane city street until it reaches the western terminus of 526. There, a central left-turn lane is added. As 525 makes its way down the embankments of Mukilteo toward the ferry terminal. At Olympic View Middle School, turn lane ends and a ferry holding lane begins in the shoulder. (Travel in the holding lane is not permitted unless a backup has formed). At Goat Trail Road, the ferry holding lane becomes a lane for ferry traffic only. (All vehicles bound for the ferry must use the lane, and one may not enter the lane from that point on.) Traffic for Whidbey Island is funneled into a holding area, while local traffic may continue to the waterfront. (Both the holding area and the local street carry the designation of SR 525).
On the Whidbey Island side, 525 climbs a 9% grade, which sometimes causes new drivers of manual transmission vehicles to stall. The roadway is unbalanced, with two northbound lanes, a central turn lane, one southbound lane, and one ferry traffic holding lane (the same rules apply as in Mukilteo, and the compulsory entrance is at the intersection with Humphrey Rd.), the grade levels after a short distance to about 2% and the road travels through the community of Clinton. Just north of Clinton, the highway narrows again to two lanes and becomes a rural highway. It travels westward through the communities of Bayview and Freeland before turning north. It then passes through Greenbank and ends at its junction with State Route 20 near Keystone, just west of which is the ferry dock for Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula.
Read more about this topic: Washington State Route 525
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