Washington State Route 9

Route description

State Route 9 (SR 9) originates as the Snohomish–Woodinville Road at a partial cloverleaf interchange with SR 522 north of Woodinville. Temporarily paralleling a BNSF rail line, the highway intersects SR 524 in Maltby. After SR 524, the roadway passes several residential communities in Clearview and Cathcart. Shortly after leaving Cathcart, SR 96 terminates at the road. SR 9 passes Harvey Airfield and crosses another BNSF rail line and the Snohomish River to enter Snohomish. North of the Snohomish River Bridge, the highway encounters a diamond interchange with 2nd Street and Riverview Road and turns northeast to intersect Bickford Avenue, which once was U.S. Route 2 (US 2). Curving north out of Snohomish, the route interchanges with US 2 in a modified diamond interchange, with a westbound US 2 offramp routed onto New Bunk Foss Road.

In suburban West Lake Stevens near the Lake Stevens shoreline, SR 204 ends at the highway. After the intersection, the roadway had an estimated daily average of 25,000 motorists in 2007, making this stretch of road the busiest on the whole highway. SR 9 also forms the western boundary of Lake Stevens and the eastern boundary of Marysville while passing a weigh station and the SR 92 junction. After Lake Cassidy, the road intersects SR 528 and continues into North Marysville, where the roadway passes over the Snohomish County Centennial Trail. After passing SR 531, several residential subdivisions, Pioneer Elementary and Arlington High School, the highway enters downtown Arlington as Hazel Street. After a brief concurrency with SR 530, SR 9 crosses the Stillaguamish River and passes Bryant to enter a heavily forested area and leave Snohomish County.

Entering Skagit County, the highway continues northwest through a large forest to Lake McMurray, where it intersects SR 534 and encounters the Lake McMurray Store, established in 1889. Passing Big Lake and its community of the same name, the roadway serves Big Lake Elementary before intersecting SR 538 at a roundabout. Turning northeast to Clear Lake and Clear Lake Elementary, the route crosses the Skagit River into Sedro-Woolley. In Sedro-Woolley, the street becomes concurrent with SR 20 and is named Moore Street. At the end of the concurrency, the road turns north as Township Street, paralleling another BNSF rail line, at Cascade Middle School. Continuing north out of the city and into rural areas, SR 9 passes Samish Elementary, crosses the Samish River and exits rural Skagit County.

The highway enters Whatcom County in a valley located east of Lake Whatcom. Passing Acme and crossing the Nooksack River, the roadway becomes concurrent with SR 542 in Deming. Traveling west with SR 542 along the Nooksack River, the road splits in Cedarville and continues north through a series of 90-degree turns in a plain located near the Sumas River. In Nooksack, the route becomes Nooksack Avenue and encounters SR 544, named Main Street, which travels west to Everson. North of Nooksack, SR 9 intersects SR 546 in a rural area and travels northeast along the Sumas River to Sumas. In Sumas, SR 547 ends at SR 9 and a spur route that serves trucks branches off and SR 9 terminates at the Canada–US border. The road continues north from the Canada–US border, through Abbotsford, BC to Highway 1 (BC 1), as BC 11.

Spur route

Within Sumas, SR 9 has a short 0.24 mi (0.39 km) spur route that is used by trucks travelling into Canada. SR 9 Spur starts at SR 9 (Cherry Street) and travels east as Garfield Street and north as Sumas Avenue to the Canada–US border, where it becomes Boundary Avenue and reconnects back to SR 9's continuation in Canada, Highway 11 (BC 11) in Abbotsford, BC. After the Cherry Street intersection, an estimated daily average of 1,800 motorists used the roadway in 2007.

History

The current route of SR 9 began as a road extending from Grace (today Woodinville) north to Snohomish, first appearing in an 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 Canada–US 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 November 22, 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.

Future developments

Between 1980 and 2000, the population of Snohomish County grew by 80%; most new residents now use the 2-lane SR 9 to commute. Accidents have increased from an average of 325 collisions per year in the 1990s to 450 collisions per year between 2000 and 2007. Since late 2005, WSDOT has been improving the corridor with six projects located between SR 522 and the Skagit County line that are scheduled to be completed by 2013. South of Snohomish, WSDOT is improving the highway in multiple ways including new intersections and alignments, new web cameras and new turn lanes. Between SR 524 and Clearview, the 2-lane road is being widened to a four-lane divided highway starting in 2011. The SR 531 intersection south of Arlington was scheduled to be rebuilt as a roundabout in 2011. The roundabout option was chosen over a traffic signal in early October 2009. A route development plan is currently being designed for the highway between SR 522 and Schloman Road north of Arlington. During a project to widen SR 9 in Lake Stevens, a left-turn lane to Lake Stevens Road was removed and residents located on the road have protested.

Spur intersections

The entire spur is in Sumas, Whatcom County.