Washington State Route 515

State Route 515 (SR 515) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Washington serving suburban King County. The highway travels 8 miles (12.9 km) north from SR 516 in eastern Kent to Renton, where it intersects Interstate 405 (I-405) and SR 900.

State Route 515
A map of Kent and Renton with SR 515 highlighted in red
Route information
Auxiliary route of I-5
Defined by RCW 47.17.705
Maintained by WSDOT
Length7.86 mi[1] (12.65 km)
Existed1964–present
Major junctions
South end SR 516 in Kent
  I-405 in Renton
North end SR 900 in Renton
Location
CountiesKing
Highway system
← SR 513→ SR 516

The highway was originally built by the county government in the 1910s as a winding gravel road connecting local coal mines. It was straightened and paved in the 1920s and was designated as Secondary State Highway 5C (SSH 5C) in 1937. SSH 5C was replaced by SR 515 in the 1964 state highway renumbering and extended north into downtown Renton after the construction of I-405. A section of the highway on Talbot Highway was moved to a new bypass road in 1982 and other sections in Kent were widened to four lanes in 1991. The I-405 underpass was rebuilt as a half diamond interchange in 2010.

Route description

SR 515 begins at an intersection with SR 516 east of downtown Kent, in the business district of the East Hill neighborhood. The highway travels north on a four-lane section of 104th Avenue Southeast, passing Kent-Meridian High School and several suburban neighborhoods. SR 515 then diverts northeast onto 108th Avenue and crosses Harrison Creek, leaving Kent city limits near Panther Lake.[2] The highway enters Renton and continues north through suburban neighborhoods along the east edge of the SR 167 freeway. It passes the Valley Medical Center at Carr Road and turns northwest onto Benson Road. SR 515 then descends from Talbot Hill and passes under a pedestrian overpass at Thomas Teasdale Park.[3]

The highway then supersedes a section of Talbot Road and crosses under I-405, which it intersects in a half diamond interchange at the south edge of downtown Renton.[4] Talbot Road continues into downtown Renton, passing several big-box stores and SR 515 turns northeast onto Grady Way near the city hall. Grady Way turns into Main Street and travels north along an embanked section of I-405 towards the center of downtown Renton. SR 515 terminates at two intersections with SR 900, which is split between a pair of one-way streets: Houser Way, which also carries a street running railroad, and Bronson Way one block from the Cedar River and the Renton Public Library.[3][5]

SR 515 is used by King County Metro route 169, which provides bus connections to areas between Kent's train station and Downtown Renton.[6] The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) conducts an annual survey of traffic volumes on state highways measured in terms of average annual daily traffic. Traffic volumes on SR 515 range from a minimum of 7,900 vehicles in downtown Renton to a maximum of 31,000 vehicles in northern Kent.[7]

History
Former route marker for SSH 5C

Benson Road, connecting Kent to Renton over the Benson and Talbot hills, was constructed in the 1910s as a gravel road serving local coal mines.[8] The road was straightened and paved by the county government in the mid-1920s, with all but one mile (1.6 km) completed by 1928.[9] Benson Road was added to the state highway system in 1937 as Secondary State Highway 5C (SSH 5C), which connected Primary State Highway 2 (PSH 2) in Renton to SSH 5A east of Kent.[10]

SR 515 was created during the 1964 state highway renumbering to supersede SSH 5C, while PSH 2 became SR 900 and SSH 5A became SR 516.[11] The Renton Freeway (I-405) opened to traffic in 1965 and crossed under SR 515 without intersecting it.[12] SR 515 was subsequently extended further north into downtown Renton over the former alignment of SR 405.[13] Suburban development of the Kent and Renton areas in the 1960s and 1970s brought higher traffic volumes to the highway, necessitating an expansion project.[14] The project, which would construct a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) bypass of Benson Road between Carr Road and I-405, was opposed by local residents and was frequently cut and revived due to limited availability of state funds.[15][16] The $4.5 million, four-lane road was approved by the state government in 1981 as part of a new gas tax and was completed the following year.[17][18] The remaining section of SR 515 in eastern Kent was widened by the city government in 1991 using funds approved by the state legislature.[19][20]

As part of a $84 million project to widen I-405 through Renton, a new interchange with SR 515 was constructed and opened to traffic in December 2010.[21] The half diamond interchange consists of an onramp to northbound I-405 and an offramp from southbound I-405 and was intended to siphon traffic from the nearby SR 167 interchange.[21][22]

Major intersections

The entire highway is in King County.

Locationmi[1]kmDestinationsNotes
Kent0.000.00 SR 516 (SE 256th Street) – KentSouthern terminus, continues as 104th Avenue Southeast
Renton6.9011.10 I-405 north – BellevueInterchange, northbound entrance and southbound exit
7.8612.65 SR 900 east (S 3rd Street) – IssaquahNorthern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References
  1. Multimodal Planning Division (January 3, 2018). State Highway Log Planning Report 2017, SR 2 to SR 971 (PDF) (Report). Washington State Department of Transportation. pp. 1507–1512. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  2. Washington State Department of Transportation (2014). Washington State Highways, 2014–2015 (PDF) (Map). Olympia: Washington State Department of Transportation. Puget Sound inset. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  3. Google (August 30, 2018). "State Route 515" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
  4. "SR 405 – Exit 3: Junction SR 515" (PDF). Washington State Department of Transportation. April 21, 2016. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  5. "SR 900: Junction SR 900 CO 2nd Street" (PDF). Washington State Department of Transportation. July 25, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  6. Metro Transit System: Southwest Area (Map). King County Metro. March 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  7. 2016 Annual Traffic Report (PDF) (Report). Washington State Department of Transportation. 2017. pp. 198–199. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  8. "Washington State's Historic State Roads: Historic Context for Island, Snohomish, King, Pierce, and Kitsap Counties" (PDF). Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. January 2014. pp. 184–185. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
  9. "Evans Makes Fight To Straighten Road". The Seattle Times. June 3, 1928. p. 2.
  10. "Chapter 207: Classification of Public Highways" (PDF). Session Laws of the State of Washington, 1937. Washington State Legislature. March 18, 1937. pp. 1004–1005. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  11. Prahl, C. G. (December 1, 1965). "Identification of State Highways" (PDF). Washington State Highway Commission. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  12. "3 Miles Of Renton Freeway Opened". The Seattle Times. August 31, 1965. p. 6.
  13. Renton Quadrangle, Washington—King Co (Topographic map). 1:24,000. United States Geological Survey. 1949 [revised 1968]. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  14. SR 515, SE 196th St to Grady Way: Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Washington State Highway Commission. April 1971. pp. 1–6. Retrieved October 6, 2018 – via Google Books.
  15. Pryne, Eric (June 29, 1977). "Victoria Park residents fight proposed highway". The Seattle Times. p. H3.
  16. Pryne, Eric (May 24, 1978). "Roadblocks still loom for highway". The Seattle Times. p. H7.
  17. "State OK's road projects for Renton and Kent". The Seattle Times. September 9, 1981. p. F8.
  18. Corsaletti, Louis T. (August 18, 1982). "Road progress frustrates south Renton residents". The Seattle Times. p. F1.
  19. "Two stretches of road to be widened or fixed". The Seattle Times. April 29, 1991. p. E3.
  20. Hatch, Walter (May 8, 1987). "Senate OK's road budget, boosts fees, taxes". The Seattle Times. p. B1.
  21. Radford, Dean (December 22, 2010). "New I-405 onramp, offramp at Talbot Road in Renton to open Tuesday afternoon". Renton Reporter. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  22. "WSDOT opens new interchange in Renton ahead of schedule" (Press release). Washington State Department of Transportation. December 21, 2010. Archived from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved October 6, 2018.

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