WASHINGTON STATE ROUTE 18

'State Route 18', also known as 'SR-18' or 'Highway 18', is a 28-mile long state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, which connects State Route 99 in south King County with Interstate 90. It runs northeast from Federal Way, through Auburn, connecting to Green River Community College, then through Covington, Maple Valley, over the 1,375 ft Tiger Summit, and then terminates at I-90 about eight miles east of Issaquah near Snoqualmie.
Highway 18 is a dangerous roadway due in part to the heavy truck traffic between I-5 and I-90. For the past several years, work as been done on a project to turn SR-18 into a limited access highway and widen it to four lanes, two in each direction. Three-fourths of the highway upgrade has been completed; it now has four lanes from Federal Way to Issaquah Hobart Road. The last one-fourth of the expansion is 7 miles which includes the climb up to Tiger Summit and the last 2 miles to Interstate 90 with a freeway-to-freeway connection. The project still needs $267.5 million in funding and construction is set to be completed by 2015.
SR-18 forms part of one possible route for a proposed future Interstate 605, though the idea faces considerable opposition. However, an appropriate measure would be to renumber the highway as an Interstate highway after completion of the widening, since it links Interstate 5 to Interstate 90.

Contents

Major intersections and exits

Cultural references

Related routes

References

External links

Major intersections and exits

County	Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
King	Federal Way	0.00	N/A	SR 99/Pacific Highway S.	Western terminus
			N/A	SR 161/Enchanted Parkway S.
'BEGIN Freeway'
King	Federal Way		N/A	I-5 - Seattle, Portland
			N/A	Wherehauser Way S.
	Auburn		N/A	'TO SB' SR 167, West Valley Highway S.
			N/A	'NB' SR 167 Valley Freeway
			N/A	'C' Street S.W., Cross Street S.W.
			N/A	SR 164/Auburn Way
			N/A	S.E. Auburn Black Diamond Road
			N/A	S.E. 304th Street
	Covington		N/A	SR 516/S.E. 272nd Street
			N/A	S.E. 256th Street
	Maple Valley		N/A	'TO' SR 169, S.E. 232nd Street
			N/A	244th Avenue S.E.
	Hobart		N/A	Issaquah Hobart Road S.E
'END Freeway'
King			N/A	Tiger Mountain Summit
	Snoqualmie		N/A	I-90, Snoqualmie Parkway	Eastern terminus

Cultural references

A band local to the Kent/Covington/Auburn area called Daphne Loves Derby wrote a song entitled ''Midnight Highway'' which sings "I miss our midnight rides on highway 18, 18 is gone."

Related routes

★ State Route 181

References

1. State Highway Log, Washington State Department of Transportation, 2005 B

External links

★ Washington State Highways: SR-18

★ SR 18 - Corridor from Auburn to I-90

★ Projects and Project Updates for Highway 18