Washington State Route 539 - History

History

Prior to the 1964 state highway renumbering, SR 539 was known as SSH (Secondary State Highway) 1-B. (The I-5 corridor at the time was known as Primary State Highway 1.) U.S. Route 99 came into being in 1926 with the rest of the original U.S. Highways, and was signed concurrently with PSH-1 until 1964. In 1954, SSH-1-B was designated as U.S. Route 99 Alternate. During the 1964 renumbering, the PSH-1 and SSH-1-B designations were removed. Then in 1969, U.S. 99 was decommissioned in the state of Washington, as was Alt. U.S. 99, and Alt. U.S. 99 was replaced by SR 539.

The routing of SSH-1-B/Alt. U.S. 99 presumably continued south on Meridian Street past what is now I-5, then down either Broadway or Girard Street in downtown Bellingham to connect with U.S. 99/PSH-1, which at the time ran on Holly Street, Prospect Street, and Dupont Street in downtown Bellingham.

The first road from Bellingham to Lynden was the "Plank Road" built of 10x10 inch planks laid side by side in the 1890s. One part of the road went around Wiser Lake and a part of that road is now called Old Guide Road.

The Guide Meridian was transformed from a two lane highway to a four lane highway in the late 2000s. The project was completed in two phases. The first phase, carried out by IMCO General Construction of Bellingham, was from Horton Road to Ten Mile Road. Along with the wider roadway the project installed new signals at Smith, Axton and Laurel Road intersections. It also replaced both the Four Mile Creek and Ten Mile Creek Bridges with wider, safer bridges. Construction of this segment was started in June 2007 and completed in Fall 2008, at a total cost of $39.9 million, funded by the Washington State DOT.

The second phase created a four lane highway from Ten Mile Road to Badger Road. It also built four new roundabouts at Ten Mile Road, Pole Road, Wiser Lake Road, and River Road to further help improve safety. Bridges were widened or replaced at Wiser Lake, Fishtrap Creek, Floodway and Nooksack River. In Summer 2007 the crews moved utilities from the roadway. In Fall 2007 the DOT finished buying property, and construction began in Spring 2008. The project was completed in Fall 2010, in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics in nearby Vancouver.