State Route 538 (SR 538, alternatively named College Way) is a long

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

located within the northern area of

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...

city limits City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. Similarly, corporate limi ...

and the

urban growth boundary An urban growth boundary, or UGB, is a regional boundary, set in an attempt to control urban sprawl by, in its simplest form, mandating that the area inside the boundary be used for urban development and the area outside be preserved in its natural ...

, located in

Skagit County Skagit County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,523. The county seat and largest city is Mount Vernon. The county was formed in 1883 from Whatcom County and is named for the Skagit Ind ...

, a subdivision of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. The highway, which has existed as a county road since 1911, travels from (I-5) in the west, passing former (US 99), now Riverside Drive, and

Skagit Valley College Skagit Valley College (SVC) is a public community college in Mount Vernon, Washington. It serves students in Skagit, Island, and San Juan counties in northwest Washington state. Established in 1926, SVC grants academic transfer pathways, profes ...

's main Mount Vernon campus before terminating at a

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

with . Before being designated Secondary State Highway 1G (SSH 1G) in 1937, the current roadway that is now SR 538 was a county road through farmland for 26 years. SSH 1G traveled between (PSH 1), also known as US 99, and until 1964, when the current designation of SR 538 was created. US 99 was bypassed by I-5 after 1966 and became Riverside Drive. The roundabout at SR 9 was constructed in 2007 while the Riverside Drive intersection was widened in 2009.

Route description

State Route 538 (SR 538) begins at the (I-5) interchange in northern

located south of the

Skagit River The Skagit River ( ) is a river in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and northwestern Washington in the United States, approximately 150 mi (240 km) long. The river and its tributaries drain an area of 1.7 million acres (690,000& ...

. The roadway, which handled a daily average of 27,000 motorists at the interchange in 2008, is named College Way and travels east through a commercial zone, passing Riverside Drive, the former route of (US 99), and crossing a set of

rail tracks A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, ...

used by

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

. Transitioning from a commercial to residential area, the Mount Vernon campus of the

, located on the north side of the highway, is passed and eventually SR 538 leaves Mount Vernon

. The road turns southeast and ends at a

with within Mount Vernon's

History

Originating as a county road by 1911, SR 538 was designated Secondary State Highway 1G (SSH 1G) in 1937. SSH 1G ran from (PSH 1), co-signed as (US 99), to . During the 1964 highway renumbering, SR 538 was created to replace SSH 1G, PSH 1 and US 99 were replaced with (I-5) and replaced SSH 1A. I-5 was not built until after 1966 and the western terminus of SR 538 was still US 99. Between early June and late July 2007, the

Washington State Department of Transportation The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...

(WSDOT) constructed a

at the SR 9 and Schopf Lane intersection, the first in

. The new roundabout reduced the length of SR 538 by . In early 2009, between I-5 and 18th Street, WSDOT repaved the highway and expanded the Riverside Drive intersection. A city-led project to widen the section of College Way that passes under I-5 at the western terminus of SR 538 began construction in December 2018 and was completed in 2020. The street was expanded to six lanes, including dedicated left turn lanes and two through lanes that are separated from the rest of traffic by the columns of the underpass.

Major intersections

References

External links

Highways of Washington State
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538 Year 538 ( DXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Iohannes without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1291 '' Ab ...

Transportation in Skagit County, Washington