State Route 276 (SR 276) was 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 the

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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 was meant to serve as a northern bypass of Pullman in Whitman County, traveling east from U.S. Route 195 (US 195) west of the city to SR 270 east of the city. Proposals were first drawn in 1969 for a complete

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

around Pullman, with the west side built and signed as US 195 in 1975. The northern segment of the ring road was codified in law in 1973 as SR 276, but was never constructed. In 2016, the highway was removed by the state legislature.

Route description

SR 276 was legislated to begin at an intersection with US 195 west of Pullman in rural Whitman County. The highway would continue east through the

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as a

divided Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the ways that numbers are combined to make new numbers. The other operations are addition, subtraction, and multiplication. At an elementary level the division of two natural numb ...

limited-access highway A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, limited access freeway, and partial controlled access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which ...

, intersecting Brayton Road at an

at-grade intersection An intersection or an at-grade junction is a junction where two or more roads converge, diverge, meet or cross at the same height, as opposed to an interchange, which uses bridges or tunnels to separate different roads. Major intersections a ...

and SR 27 at a

diamond interchange A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road. Design The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...

. SR 276 would have turned southeast and intersect the future Coliseum Road at a diamond interchange before ending at SR 270 east of Pullman. The highway was proposed primarily to relieve traffic on SR 27 and SR 270 through downtown Pullman, measured in surveys conducted by 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) using

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). WSDOT determined the intersection between SR 27 and SR 270 in downtown Pullman as the busiest highway in the region. SR 270 averaged 19,000 vehicles east of the intersection and SR 27 averaged 16,000 vehicles south of the intersection in 2011, while WSDOT predicted that average traffic could rise to 26,000 vehicles by 2025.

History

around Pullman was first proposed by the

Washington State Highway Commission 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. Established in 1905, it is ...

in 1966 and surveyed in 1970.

Right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

acquisition by

WSDOT 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 ...

began in 1972 and the corridor was designated and codified into law as SR 276 the following year. of the ring road was completed west of the city as part of US 195 in 1974 while a public survey in 1975 recommended a southern bypass for SR 270 instead of SR 276. Several property owners along the proposed route of the bypass filed a lawsuit against the Washington State Highway Commission and argued the selected alignment would disturb wildlife. The

Washington Supreme Court The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the judiciary of the U.S. state of Washington. The court is composed of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Members of the court are elected to six-year terms. Justices must retir ...

ruled in favor of the highway commission in January 1975. The bypass project was canceled by 1978 and the WSDOT right-of-way was leased to farmers for agricultural purposes. The project was restarted with a transportation study from the Spokane Regional Council in 1993 and funded by the Pullman municipal government as part of their comprehensive plan. A route development plan in 2007, funded by WSDOT, recommended the construction of a

with a single

at Brayton Road. WSDOT also allowed construction of a road crossing the protected right-of-way for the bypass. In early 2016, a bill was introduced in the

Washington State Legislature The Washington State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a bicameral body, composed of the lower Washington House of Representatives, composed of 98 Representatives, and the upper Washington State Senat ...

to decommission the unbuilt highway by removing its designation, primarily to facilitate the expansion of the

Pullman–Moscow Regional Airport Pullman–Moscow Regional Airport is a public airport in the northwest United States, located in Whitman County, Washington, east of Pullman, Washington and west of Moscow, Idaho. The airport is accessed via spurs from State Route 270, and ha ...

runway per an agreement signed four years earlier. The bill was passed out of the legislature and was signed by the

Governor of Washington The governor of Washington is the head of government of Washington and commander-in-chief of the state's military forces.WA Const. art. III, § 2. The officeholder has a duty to enforce state laws,WA Const. art. III, § 5. the power to either a ...

on April 1, 2016. The following year, the Pullman city government proposed the construction of a southerly bypass connecting US 195 to SR 270 near Mary's Park.

References

External links

Highways of Washington StateSR 276 - North Pullman Bypass - Route Development Plan
{{State highways in Washington related to SR 27

276 __NOTOC__ Year 276 ( CCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tacitus and Aemilianus (or, less frequently, year 1029 ...

Transportation in Whitman County, Washington