State Route 516 (SR 516) 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 ...

, serving communities in southern King County. The highway travels east as the Kent-Des Moines Road and the Kent-Kangley Road from a concurrency with SR 509 in

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

through

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and Covington to an intersection with SR 169 in Maple Valley. SR 516, designated as part of the National Highway System within Kent, intersects three major freeways in the area: Interstate 5 (I-5) in western Kent, SR 167 in downtown Kent, and SR 18 in Covington. The roadway, built in the 1890s, was codified in 1937 as Secondary State Highway 1K (SSH 1K) from Des Moines to Kent and SSH 5A from Kent to Maple Valley. The two highways were combined during the 1964 highway renumbering to form SR 516 on its current route.

Route description

SR 516 begins in

at Marine View Drive as SR 509 turns north towards Burien near the East Passage of

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 ...

. The two

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 travel east on the Kent-Des Moines Road past

Highline Community College Highline College is a public community college in Des Moines, Washington. Highline was founded in 1961 as the first community college in King County, Washington. The main campus covers . , there were approximately 17,000 students and 350,000 alu ...

and

Mount Rainier High School Mount Rainier High School is a secondary school in Des Moines, Washington, United States; named for Mount Rainier which can be seen quite well from the school on a clear day. Mount Rainier serves approximately 1700 students and has been active sin ...

to an intersection with SR 99 in western

, where SR 509 turns south towards Tacoma. SR 516 then intersects

I-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 ...

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 ...

and continues east onto a four-lane

divided highway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

over the

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

and its pedestrian and bicycle trail into downtown Kent. The highway serves as the southern terminus of SR 181 before intersecting SR 167 in 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 ...

at the western edge of downtown Kent. SR 516 shifts south onto Willis Street and crosses the Interurban Trail and a

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

rail line before turning north onto Central Avenue and east onto Smith Street near Kent Station. The highway travels southeast along Mill Creek onto the Kent-Kangley Road and serves as the southern terminus of SR 515 at

Kent-Meridian High School Kent-Meridian High School is a high school located in Kent, Washington, United States, and part of the Kent School District. Kent-Meridian is one of four high schools in the Kent School District. It serves students in grades nine through twelve w ...

before leaving Kent for Covington. SR 516 passes

Lake Meridian Lake Meridian is a fresh-water lake located in the city of Kent, Washington. One among the few lakes in King County allowing motorized boating, Lake Meridian is an urban lake, surrounded by homes and located just off the Kent-Kangley Road on K ...

as 272nd Street and intersects SR 18 at a diamond interchange located in Covington. The highway continues east past Pipe Lake and into Maple Valley before crossing the

Cedar to Green River Trail The Cedar to Green River Trail, also known as the Lake Wilderness Trail is a soft surface rail trail in Washington. This trail is designated for non-motorized use and connects Maple Valley to Lake Wilderness. In Maple Valley it connects to the ...

and ending at an intersection with SR 169. 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 2011, WSDOT calculated that the busiest section of the highway was between SR 181 and the SR 167 interchange, serving 38,000 vehicles, while the least busiest section was its western terminus at SR 509, serving 8,900 vehicles. SR 516 between I-5 and SR 167 within western Kent is designated as part of the National Highway System, which includes roadways important to the national economy, defense, and mobility.

History

The Kent-Kangley Road was built as a

wagon road ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings. It ...

by King County by the late 1890s and was upgraded to a paved highway after being codified as two highways during the creation of the primary and secondary state highways system in 1937: SSH 1K and SSH 5A. SSH 1K traveled south from U.S. Route 99 and Primary State Highway 1 (PSH 1) through Burien and east through

to US 99 and PSH 1 in Midway. SSH 5A traveled east from US 99 and PSH 1 in Midway across the

into

, intersecting SSH 5M, PSH 5, and SSH 5C, before ending at the Enumclaw– Renton branch of PSH 5 in Maple Valley. The two highways were combined during the 1964 highway renumbering to form SR 516 and codified into law in 1970. The highway traveled east from SR 509 in Des Moines through

at Midway, SR 167 in Kent, and SR 18 in Covington to SR 169 in Maple Valley. SR 509 was re-aligned in 1991 onto SR 516 and SR 99, forming new concurrencies, until the completion of a new north–south freeway.

Major intersections

References

External links

Highways of Washington State
{{Good article 516 Transportation in King County, Washington