State Route 305 (SR 305) 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 ...

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 ...

, primarily serving

Bainbridge Island Bainbridge Island is a city and island in Kitsap County, Washington. It is located in Puget Sound. The population was 23,025 at the 2010 census and an estimated 25,298 in 2019, making Bainbridge Island the second largest city in Kitsap County. ...

Kitsap County Kitsap County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 275,611. Its county seat is Port Orchard, and its largest city is Bremerton. The county was formed out of King County and Jefferson County on ...

and connecting it to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

in King County via the

Seattle–Bainbridge ferry The Seattle–Bainbridge ferry is a ferry route across Puget Sound between Seattle and Bainbridge Island, Washington. The route was called the Seattle–Winslow ferry before the city of Winslow annexed the rest of the island and changed its name ...

. The highway travels north through Bainbridge Island and leaves the island on the

Agate Pass Bridge The Agate Pass Bridge is a structural steel truss cantilever bridge spanning Agate Pass, connecting Bainbridge Island to the Kitsap Peninsula. It was built in 1950, and it replaced a car ferry service which dated from the 1920s. The bridge provide ...

into the

Kitsap Peninsula The Kitsap Peninsula () lies west of Seattle across Puget Sound, in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest. Hood Canal separates the peninsula from the Olympic Peninsula on its west side. The peninsula, a.k.a. "Kitsap", encompasses all of Kits ...

. SR 305 continues northwest through

Poulsbo Poulsbo ( ) is a city on Liberty Bay in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is the smallest of the four cities in Kitsap County. The population was 9,200 at the 2010 census and an estimated 10,927 in 2018. The area was historically in ...

, intersecting SR 307 and ending at the SR 3 freeway. The highway was created during the 1964 highway renumbering and was preceded by Secondary State Highway 21A (SSH 21A), established in 1937. The ferry, part of the highway since 1994, is served by the ''Jumbo Mark-II''-class and and operates on a 35-minute crossing time.

Route description

SR 305 begins at

Colman Dock Colman Dock, also called Pier 52, is the primary ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington, United States. The original pier is no longer in existence, but the terminal, now used by the Washington State Ferry system, is still called "Colman Dock". ...

and travels on the

. The ferry, operated by

Washington State Ferries Washington State Ferries (WSF) is a government agency that operates automobile and passenger ferry service in the U.S. state of Washington as part of the Washington State Department of Transportation. It runs ten routes serving 20 terminals loca ...

(WSF), is on a route and is served by the ''Jumbo Mark-II''-class and , traveling at a speed of for a 35-minute crossing. The ferries depart from Colman Dock and travel northwest across

Elliott Bay Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is in the U.S. state of Washington, extending southeastward between West Point in the north and Alki Point in the south. Seattle was founded on this body of water in the 1850s an ...

and

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

Winslow Winslow may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Winslow, Buckinghamshire, England, a market town and civil parish * Winslow Rural District, Buckinghamshire, a rural district from 1894 to 1974 United States and Canada * Rural Municipality of Winslo ...

, part of the city of

. As of , WSF operates the ferry on 24 weekday crossings and 22 weekend crossings, as a $8.00 toll for adult passengers is charged with prepaid Wave2Go cards being accepted. SR 305 leaves the ferry in Winslow on Bainbridge Island and travels north through the island's interior, passing Bainbridge High School before turning northwest near Murden Cove. The highway travels over

Agate Pass Agate Pass or Agate Passage is a high-current tidal strait in Puget Sound connecting Port Madison and mainland Kitsap County in the US state of Washington. It lies between Bainbridge Island and the mainland of the Kitsap Peninsula near Suquamis ...

on the

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. SR 305 continues northwest along the coast of

Liberty Bay Liberty Bay is a narrow inlet extending about 4 miles in a northerly direction from the northwest part of Port Orchard, adjacent to the Kitsap Peninsula in Western Washington. Background The southeastern half of Liberty Bay is very narrow. The ...

, passing through Lemolo and entering

to intersect the southern terminus of SR 307. The highway continues northwest to end at 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 ...

with the SR 3 freeway north of the city. 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 5,300 and 27,000 vehicles per day used the highway, mostly in Poulsbo. The Seattle–Bainbridge ferry was the busiest route in the Puget Sound, carrying 6.119 million passengers and 1.194 million vehicles in 2012.

History

SR 305 was established during the 1964 highway renumbering as a replacement for SSH 21A, which traveled between the

ferry dock and Primary State Highway 21 (PSH 21) northwest of

. SSH 21A originally began at the Port Blakely ferry dock when it was codified in 1937, but was moved north to Winslow in 1949. The highway connected

to the

via a car ferry that began in the 1920s and was replaced by the

after it opened on October 2, 1950 with a 35-cent toll. The bridge, which cost $1.4 million, had its tolls removed in October 1951 after it was paid for by a bond issue passed by 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 ...

. The highway was later straightened in segments in the late 1950s by the Department of Highways before becoming SR 305 and being re-codified in 1970. SR 305 was extended north to the newly built SR 3 freeway and east on the Seattle–Winslow Ferry to

in 1994. No major revisions to the highway have occurred since 1994; however,

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 ...

widened SR 305 in 2009 within Poulsbo and installed

high-occupancy vehicle lane A high-occupancy vehicle lane (also known as an HOV lane, carpool lane, diamond lane, 2+ lane, and transit lane or T2 or T3 lanes) is a restricted traffic lane reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers, i ...

s (HOV lanes) for use during peak hours. Regular boat service between Bainbridge Island and Seattle began with passenger and freight-carrying steamboats. The Eagle Harbor Transportation Co. operated various steamers on the route, including the ''Bainbridge'' and ''Chippewa'', until WSF was created in 1951 to manage most ferries in the

. WSF operated the and steam ferry ''San Mateo'' on the route, with the used on extra runs. The 2,500-passenger and 160-car Super class and replaced the older ferries in 1968. The Jumbo Mark II class and were built and placed on the route in 1997 and 1998 respectively to serve growing traffic on the older ferries.

Major intersections

References

External links

Highways of Washington State
{{Authority control 305 Transportation in Kitsap County, Washington Transportation in King County, Washington