State Route 505 (SR 505) is a short state highway 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 ...

. It connects the towns of Winlock and Toledo to

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

(I-5) and SR 504.

Route description

SR 505 begins at the intersection of Kerron Street and Walnut Street in downtown Winlock, on the east side of Olequa Creek. Kerron Street, once part of SR 603, continues north towards

Napavine Napavine is a city in Lewis County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,766 at the 2020 census. History Napavine was officially incorporated as a town on November 21, 1913. Settlers began arriving in the Cowlitz area in the early 1 ...

and south to Vader along the

Seattle Subdivision 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 region of ...

of the BNSF Railway. Walnut Street crosses over the double-tracked railroad and leaves downtown, traveling around a hill with the city's

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

. The highway travels southeast and passes two small suburban subdivisions before turning on Cemetery Road. SR 505 continues southeast across the rural Grand Prairie to an interchange with

(I-5) at Pikes Hill. From the interchange, the highway descends into the Cowlitz Prairie, turning south at a junction with Jackson Highway and reaching Toledo. SR 505 runs southeasterly through the city's street grid and turns east onto Cowlitz Street before crossing the

Cowlitz River The Cowlitz River is a river in the state of Washington in the United States, a tributary of the Columbia River. Its tributaries drain a large region including the slopes of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens. The Cowlitz has a d ...

. The highway travels east across the forested Layton Prairie towards the Wilkes Hills, which SR 505 crosses via two narrow north–south passes. The highway continues south and descends from the hills, terminating at a junction with SR 504 (the Spirit Lake Highway) along the north bank of the

North Fork Toutle River The North Fork Toutle River is a tributary of the Toutle River in southwestern Washington in the United States. The river has its headwaters near Spirit Lake, on the north side of Mount St. Helens, and flows to the Toutle River, about upstrea ...

near Toutle. SR 505 is maintained 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. Established in 1905, it is ...

(WSDOT), which conducts an annual survey on state highways to measure traffic volume 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 ...

. Average traffic volumes on the highway in 2016 ranged from a minimum of 470 vehicles at its eastern terminus to a maximum of 5,200 vehicles in downtown Toledo. SR 505 was also designated as a state scenic byway by the legislature in 1993.

History

Until 1992, SR 505 from I-5 west to Winlock was part of State Route 603, which continued north from Winlock through

to SR 6 about two miles (3 km) west of I-5 in

Chehalis Chehalis may refer to: People * Chehalis people, a Native American people of Washington state **Lower Chehalis language **Upper Chehalis language * Sts'Ailes people (Chehalis people), a First Nation in British Columbia * Chehalis First Nation, Bri ...

. Several changes were made to the state highways throughout Washington in 1992, and at that time the section from SR 6 to Winlock was turned back to the county, while the rest became a part of a realignment of SR 505. Until that time, SR 505 began at an interchange with I-5 and SR 506 west of Toledo. The county road is still signed "Highway 603" from SR 6 to Winlock even though it is no longer part of the state highway system. The Cowlitz River Bridge in Toledo was rebuilt in 1994.

Major intersections

References

External links

Highways of Washington State
{{State highways in Washington related to I-5

505 Year 505 ( DV) was a common 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 Theodorus and Sabinianus (or, less frequently, year 1258 '' Ab urb ...

Transportation in Lewis County, Washington Transportation in Cowlitz County, Washington