State Route 161 (SR 161) is a

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 ...

serving

Pierce Pierce may refer to: Places Canada * Pierce Range, a mountain range on Vancouver Island, British Columbia United States * Pierce, Colorado * Pierce, Idaho * Pierce, Illinois * Pierce, Kentucky * Pierce, Nebraska * Pierce, Texas * Pierce, We ...

and

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

counties in 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 begins at SR 7 southwest of

Eatonville Eatonville may refer to: * Eatonville, Florida, United States * Eatonville, Minnesota, United States, an alternative name for the former Dakota village Ḣeyate Otuŋwe * Eatonville, Mississippi, United States * Eatonville, Ontario, a neighbourhood ...

and travels north as Meridian Avenue to Puyallup, becoming

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

with SR 512 and SR 167. SR 161 continues northwest as the Enchanted Parkway to end at an intersection with SR 18 in

Federal Way Federal Way is a city in King County, Washington, United States. One of the most recently incorporated cities in the county, its population was 101,030 at the 2020 census. Federal Way is the tenth-largest city in Washington and the fifth-larges ...

, west of Interstate 5 (I-5). The highway serves the communities of

Graham Graham and Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan ...

and South Hill before reaching Puyallup and the communities of

Edgewood Edgewood may refer to: Places Canada *Edgewood, British Columbia South Africa *Edgewood, a University of KwaZulu-Natal campus in Pinetown, South Africa United States Cities and towns *Edgewood, California *Edgewood, Florida *Edgewood, Illinois, a ...

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

, and Lakeland South before reaching Federal Way. SR 161 was established during the 1964 highway renumbering, replacing three Secondary State Highways (SSHs): Secondary State Highway 5D (SSH 5D) and SSH 5G, both established in 1937, and SSH 5N, established in 1955. SSH 5D served as a connector between Federal Way and Puyallup and SSH 5G served as a connector between Puyallup and South Hill. SSH 5N connected Eatonville to South Hill and was extended south towards La Grande in 1967. SR 161 was moved onto a bypass of Puyallup in the 1980s and formed concurrencies with SR 167 and SR 512 as a result. , projects to expand the highway in Edgewood and Milton and adding new offramps at the I-5 and SR 18 interchange are in progress.

Route description

SR 161 begins southwest of

and north of La Grande in rural Pierce County at an intersection with SR 7. The highway travels northeast to pass the Charles Lathrop Pack Experimental and Demonstration Forest and cross the

Little Mashel River The Little Mashel River is a river in Pierce County, Washington. It is a tributary of the Mashel River, and enters the Mashel just downstream from the Eatonville, Washington, city limits. It is noted for its canyon and the three waterfalls. C ...

into Eatonville. The roadway crosses the

Mashel River The Mashel River is a river in Pierce County, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a tributary of the Nisqually River, which it enters about southwest of Eatonville, at Nisqually river mile 39.6. Course The Mashel River’s headwaters are ...

into Downtown Eatonville, turning north onto Mashell Avenue and later Washington Avenue. SR 161 turns west onto Meridian Avenue north of Eatonville High School and leaves the city on a two-lane highway. Meridian Avenue, named for a

meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

parallel to the

Willamette Meridian The Willamette Stone was a small stone obelisk originally installed by the Department of Interior in 1885 in the western hills of Portland, Oregon in the United States to mark the intersection and origin of the Willamette meridian and Willamet ...

, continues north through rural Pierce County, passing Clear Lake and Tanwax Lake, before entering the community of

and crossing a

Tacoma Rail Tacoma Rail is a publicly owned Class III shortline railroad. It is owned by the city of Tacoma, Washington and operated as a public utility. It is one of three operating divisions of the municipally-owned Tacoma Public Utilities service, but unl ...

line near

Graham-Kapowsin High School Graham-Kapowsin High School is a high school in the Bethel School District, Pierce County, Washington, United States. Its doors first opened to grade 10 and 11 students in September 2005. GK added grade 12 students beginning Fall 2006. Grade 9 ...

. SR 161 travels north and passes South Hill and Pierce County Airport (Thun Field) before entering Puyallup. The highway turns northwest at the

South Hill Mall South Hill Mall is an enclosed, super-regional shopping mall located in Puyallup, Washington, United States. Opened in 1988 and expanded in 1992, the mall comprises more than 100 stores, plus a food court and movie theater, in of gross leasable ...

onto 31st Avenue and intersects the SR 512 freeway in a

partial cloverleaf interchange A partial cloverleaf interchange or parclo is a modification of a cloverleaf interchange. The design has been well received, and has since become one of the most popular freeway-to-arterial interchange designs in North America. It has also bee ...

, beginning a concurrency. SR 161 and SR 512 travel north on a freeway in Puyallup, intersecting Meridian Street at the

Puyallup Fair The Washington State Fair, formerly the Puyallup Fair, is the largest single attraction held annually in the U.S. state of Washington. It continually ranks in the top ten largest fairs in the United States and includes agricultural and pastora ...

grounds and Pioneer Avenue at a partial cloverleaf interchange. After the intersection with Pioneer Avenue, the freeway travels over a

BNSF 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 ...

rail line that serves

Puyallup station Puyallup station is a train station in the city of Puyallup, Washington, United States. It is served by the S Line, a Sounder commuter rail line operated by Sound Transit that runs from Pierce County to Seattle. The station is located nor ...

and crosses the

Puyallup River The Puyallup River ( ) is a river in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. About long, it is formed by glaciers on the west side of Mount Rainier. It flows generally northwest, emptying into Commencement Bay, part of Puget Sound. The ...

before a

trumpet interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

with SR 167. At the interchange, SR 512 ends and SR 161 northbound turns west on a

wrong-way concurrency A concurrency in a road network is an instance of one physical roadway bearing two or more different route numbers. When two roadways share the same right-of-way, it is sometimes called a common section or commons. Other terminology for a concurre ...

with SR 167, designated as traveling southbound. SR 161 turns north onto Meridian Avenue at Fort Malone as SR 167 travels south into Downtown Puyallup, and the highway continues north and crosses a

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

rail line. Meridian Avenue continues north to form the boundary between

and

, where the highway intersects Milton Way, the former route of SR 514. SR 161 turns northwest into King County as the Enchanted Parkway, passing through Lakeland South and

Wild Waves Theme Park Wild Waves Theme & Water Park is an amusement park and water park in Federal Way, Washington. Opened in 1977 as The Enchanted Village (with its accompanying water park, Wild Waves, opening in 1984),''Washington State's Enchanted Parks Announces ...

before crossing over

I-5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

. The Enchanted Parkway turns north into

and ends at an intersection with SR 18, located between SR 99 and I-5. Every year, 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) conducts a series of surveys on its highways in the state to measure traffic volume. This is expressed in terms of

average annual daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

(AADT), which is a measure of traffic volume for any average day of the year. In 2011, WSDOT calculated that between 340 and 99,000 vehicles per day used the highway, mostly in the Puyallup area.

History

SR 161 was formed during the 1964 highway renumbering as the successor to SSH 5N from Primary State Highway 5 (PSH 5) north of La Grande to South Hill, SSH 5G from South Hill to U.S. Route 410 (US 410) in Puyallup, and SSH 5D from US 410 north of Puyallup to US 99

. The highway was also

with US 410, signed in 1926, between the eastern end of SSH 5G in Downtown Puyallup and the southern end of SSH 5D. SSH 5D and SSH 5G were established during the creation of the Primary and secondary state highways in 1937, and SSH 5N was established in 1955 to

and extended south to PSH 5 near La Grande in 1967 after SR 161 was created. The state government completed paving of the Graham–Puyallup section of Meridian in 1960. SR 161, including the concurrency with US 410, was signed into law in 1970 as a highway extending from SR 7 near Eatonville to US 99. US 410 was replaced with an extension of SR 167 in the Tacoma area and US 12 east of the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

in 1967 and the highway was shortened from US 99 to SR 18 in 1971. SR 161 was moved east onto a bypass of Puyallup, creating concurrences with SR 512 and SR 167, in the late 1980s, and designated, within King County, as the Enchanted Parkway in 1987 as the last major revision to the highway. The Pierce County government and City of Eatonville proposed moving SR 161 to the Alder Cutoff Road south of the city, but it was not forwarded to the state legislature by the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board. An extension of the Valley Freeway between Tacoma and Puyallup has been proposed since the 1990s and would create a new interchange with SR 161 north of the

, but the freeway has not been built. The eastbound ramps at end of the concurrency between SR 161 and SR 167 was realigned in late 2008 to reduce congestion and started recent improvements to the highway. WSDOT is widening the Enchanted Parkway through the

and

area from 2 lanes to 4 lanes with wider shoulders and sidewalks to be completed by 2027. The interchange between

and SR 18 was reconstructed with a new flyover ramp from westbound SR 18 to SR 161 that was completed in July 2012. Another ramp, from southbound I-5 to SR 161, was opened months later and is planned to be replaced with a ramp to South 356th Street that feeds into a roundabout with SR 161. The ramp had been proposed since the 1990s.

Major intersections

References

External links

Highways of Washington State
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington State Route 161

161 Year 161 ( CLXI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Aurelius (or, less frequently, year 914 '' Ab urbe condi ...

Transportation in Pierce County, Washington Transportation in King County, Washington