State Route 168 (SR 168) is a legislated, but not constructed,

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 in Washington, United States. The highway is meant to serve as an alternate crossing through the

Cascade Range 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, ...

at Naches Pass, supplementing the seasonal

Chinook Pass Chinook Pass (elevation 5430 ft./1656 m.) is a pass through the Cascade Range in the state of Washington. The pass is located on the crest of the Cascade Range, along a ridge between Yakima Peak to the northwest of the pass, and Naches Pea ...

on SR 410. Proposals were first drawn in the 1930s, and the highway has been codified in law under its current designation since 1970, but no construction has occurred.

Route description

The highway is legislated to begin at a junction with SR 410 in Greenwater, in eastern Pierce County. The road would travel east along the historic

Naches Trail Naches Trail (also spelled Nachess) is a historic trail in the U.S. state of Washington. It extends from the Naches River in Eastern Washington in the area inhabited by across Naches Pass in the Cascade Mountains to the Greenwater River in present- ...

, passing through Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and across Naches Pass to Wenatchee National Forest. It would terminate at another junction with SR 410 north of Cliffdell in Yakima County. The highway would pass near Pyramid Peak, which has a maximum altitude of . A crossing similar to the legislated highway is covered by a series of Forest Routes, including Road 19 and Road 70. SR 168 would be an all-season route through Naches Pass, at an elevation of , providing an alternative to SR 410, which closes annually due to avalanche dangers near

, at an elevation of . SR 168 would allow commercial vehicles to bypass Mount Rainier National Park, where trucks and other large vehicles are prohibited on SR 410. The current restriction detours commercial traffic south to U.S. Route 12 over White Pass or north to

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

over

Snoqualmie Pass Snoqualmie Pass is a mountain pass that carries Interstate 90 (I-90) through the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Washington. The pass summit is at an elevation of , on the county line between Kittitas County and King County. Snoqualmie Pass ...

History

Plans for a or highway date back to the early 1930s, designated as the Naches Pass Link of Primary State Highway 5. The

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

appropriated $50,000 (equivalent to $ in ) for a study on the feasibility of a new highway. The 1946 study by engineer

Ole Singstad Ole Knutsen Singstad (June 29, 1882 – December 8, 1969) was a Norwegian-American civil engineer best known for his work on underwater vehicular tunnels in New York City. Singstad designed the ventilation system for the Holland Tunnel, which su ...

determined that a Naches Pass tunnel would require a bore at , which would be more difficult to build than a similar tunnel at either Snoqualmie or Stampede passes. The corridor was included as part of an extension to Interstate 82 in a 1959 proposal by the Washington State Highway Commission that was later dropped. In the early 1960s, Governor

Albert Rosellini Albert Dean Rosellini (January 21, 1910 – October 10, 2011) was an American politician who served as the List of governors of Washington, 15th governor of Washington from 1957 to 1965 and was both the first Italian Americans, Italian-Americ ...

established a committee to study the feasibility of a toll road. The route was considered feasible by the committee, and they estimated tolls of $1.50 per vehicle (equivalent to $ in ) would need to be levied to pay for the highway. Proponents of the new highway were pushing to have

U.S. Route 10 U.S. Route 10 or U.S. Highway 10 (US 10) is an east–west United States highway located in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States. Unlike most U.S. routes with "0" as the last digit of its route number, US 10 ...

routed over the pass, away from the routing over

, but this never occurred. Ultimately, the highway was not built as the state considered the highway unfeasible. The highway has been codified in Washington law since 1970, while the tunnel through Naches Pass has been codified in state law since 1959.

References

External links

Highways of Washington State
{{State highways in Washington related to SR 16

168 Year 168 ( CLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Apronianus and Paullus (or, less frequently, year 921 ''Ab urbe co ...

Proposed state highways in the United States Transportation in Pierce County, Washington Transportation in Yakima County, Washington