State Route 271 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 entirely in

Whitman County, Washington Whitman County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 47,973. The county seat is Colfax, and its largest city is Pullman. The county was formed from Stevens County in 1871. It is named ...

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 ...

, United States. The highway begins at a

y-intersection A three-way junction (or three-way intersection) is a type of road intersection with three arms. A Y junction (or Y intersection) generally has three arms of equal size coming at an acute or obtuse angle to each other; while a T junction (or T i ...

with SR 27 in the northern outskirts of Oakesdale north to an interchange with

U.S. Route 195 U.S. Route 195 (US 195) is a north–south United States Highway, of which all but 0.65 miles of its 94.02 miles (1.05 of 151.95 km) are within the state of Washington. The highway starts in rural Idaho north of the city ...

(US 195) southeast of

Rosalia Rosalia or Rosalía (with diacritic) may refer to: Persons * Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), the patron saint of Palermo in Italy * Rosalia (given name) * Rosalía (born 1992), Spanish singer Places * 314 Rosalia, an asteroid * Rosalia, Pisidia ...

. The highway listed as part of the Palouse Scenic Byway.

Route description

SR 271 begins at a y-interchange with SR 27 in north Oakesdale, traveling northwest past the Oakesdale Cemetery. The highway traverses rolling wheat fields through rural Whitman County, crossing over McCoy and Pine Creeks. The highway parallels a

single track Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, to the west of the highway, belonging to the

Washington and Idaho Railway The Washington and Idaho Railway was a shortline railroad that operated in the area south of Spokane, Washington, connecting the BNSF Railway at Marshall to Palouse, Washington, Harvard, Idaho, and Moscow, Idaho. It began operations in 2006 on ex ...

, crossing over the line roughly half way to Rosalia. The rail line continues to parallel the highway after crossing it, just on the opposite side of the highway. SR 271 terminates at an interchange with US 195 southeast of Rosalia, however the roadway continues into the town as a county-maintained road. The entirety of the route has been named as part of the Palouse Scenic Byway. 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

annual average 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 2009, WSDOT calculated that between 650 and 740 cars travel along the highway on an average day.

History

The rail line, originally belonging to the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whic ...

predates the road, and was in place since at least 1903. The first roadway to link the two cities first appeared on maps in 1912, and was named the eastern branch of the Inland Empire Highway by 1915. Between 1939 and the 1964 state highway renumbering, SR 271 was part of Primary State Highway 3.

Major intersections

References

External links

Highways of Washington State
{{State highways in Washington related to SR 27

271 __NOTOC__ Year 271 ( CCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelianus and Bassus (or, less frequently, year 1024 '' ...

Transportation in Whitman County, Washington