State Route 291 is a long state highway located in

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

and Stevens 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 sove ...

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 an intersection with

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 ...

highways

U.S. Route 2 U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west United States Numbered Highways, U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern ...

(US 2) and US 395 and travels northwest to an intersection with SR 231. It connects the north side of

with a string of communities along the north bank of the Spokane River including Nine Mile Falls, Suncrest and Tumtum.

Route description

SR 291 begins at an intersection with US 2 / US 395, named North Division Street, and West Francis Avenue in the Town and Country and North Hill neighborhoods of

. The highway travels west along West Francis Avenue through western Spokane, before turning northwest along North Nine Mile Road in the Balboa/South Indian Trail neighborhood. The highway begins to parallel the

Spokane River The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city of ...

as it passes a golf course and then through the community of Nine Mile Falls. The highway continues northwest, entering Stevens County from Spokane County, just east of the Nine Mile Falls Dam, as it crosses the

Little Spokane River The Little Spokane River is a major tributary of the Spokane River, approximately long, in eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a rural area of forested foothills and a farming valley north of the city of Spokane along the Idaho– ...

. It then climbs and shifts further north of the river to accommodate a housing development at Suncrest. Entering the community of Tumtum the highway turns southwest, snaking around Long Lake before turning west and terminating at SR 231. 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. Established in 1905, it is ...

(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 ...

(AADT), which is a measure of traffic volume for any average day of the year. In 2009, WSDOT calculated that as few as 360 cars traveled through the intersection with Corkscrew Canyon Road near the northern terminus, and as many as 30,000 cars passed through the intersection with Ash Street in downtown Spokane.

History

Before the 1964 state highway renumbering, the portion of SR 291 between Spokane and the Stevens County line was designated Secondary State Highway 3S. An extension following the Spokane River from SR 231 to SR 25 on the Columbia River was proposed in the late 1960s. A study by the

Washington State Department of Highways 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 ...

was completed in 1968 and determined that it would cost $15 million and would be "difficult to justify" due to its low traffic.

Major intersections

References

External links

Highways of Washington State
{{Authority control

291 __NOTOC__ Year 291 ( CCXCI) was a common 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 Tiberianus and Dio (or, less frequently, year 1044 ''A ...

Transportation in Spokane County, Washington Transportation in Stevens County, Washington