State Route 125 (SR 125) 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 ...

Walla Walla County Walla Walla County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 62,584. The county seat and largest city is Walla Walla. The county was formed on April 25, 1854 and is named after the Walla Wall ...

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 on ...

, United States. It travels south from the city of

Walla Walla Walla Walla can refer to: * Walla Walla people, a Native American tribe after which the county and city of Walla Walla, Washington, are named * Place of many rocks in the Australian Aboriginal Wiradjuri language, the origin of the name of the town ...

to the

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

state border and north to a junction with SR 124 near Prescott. The highway continues south towards

Pendleton, Oregon Pendleton is a city and the county seat of Umatilla County, Oregon. The population was 17,107 at the time of the 2020 census, which includes approximately 1,600 people who are incarcerated at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. Pendleton ...

, as OR 11. SR 125 also has a spur route in Walla Walla that connects it to an interchange with U.S. Route 12 (US 12). SR 125 follows a historic

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 ...

, the

Mullan Road Mullan Road was the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains to the Inland of the Pacific Northwest. It was built by U.S. Army troops under the command of Lt. John Mullan, between the spring of 1859 and summer 1860. It led from Fort Benton, ...

, and several railroads that were built in the late 19th century. The road from the Oregon border to Walla Walla was added to the state highway system in 1923 as a branch of State Road 3 (later US 410), while the remainder of the highway from Walla Walla to Prescott was designated as part of Secondary State Highway 3E in 1937. The two highways were combined to form SR 125 during the 1964 state highway renumbering. The Oregon–Walla Walla highway was originally a two-lane road that was the site of hundreds of collisions in the 1960s, prompting the state government to consider new designs. After proposals to build a bypass to carry SR 125 around Walla Walla were shelved, the state began construction of 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 ...

in 1987. It was completed the following year and improved with traffic signals in the late 1990s.

Route description

SR 125 near Walla Walla County Fairgrounds

SR 125 begins at the

–

state border as an extension of

Oregon Route 11 Oregon Route 11 is an Oregon state highway that runs between the city of Pendleton in eastern Oregon, to the Washington border south of Walla Walla, Washington. OR 11 traverses the Oregon–Washington Highway No. 8 of the Oregon stat ...

, which continues south to Milton-Freewater and a junction with Interstate 84 in

Pendleton Pendleton may refer to: Places ;United Kingdom *Pendleton, Lancashire, England *Pendleton, Greater Manchester, England ;United States *Pendleton, Indiana * Pendleton, Missouri *Pendleton, New York *Pendleton, Oregon *Pendleton, South Carolina *Pe ...

. The four-lane

carrying SR 125 follows the

Walla Walla River The Walla Walla River is a tributary of the Columbia River, joining the Columbia just above Wallula Gap in southeastern Washington (state), Washington in the United States. The river flows through Umatilla County, Oregon, and Walla Walla County, ...

downstream as it travels north through a collection of

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...

in a flat section of rural

. After intersecting the Old Milton Highway, SR 125 veers northeast into suburban College Place and passes Fort Walla Walla Park as it follows Stone Creek through residential neighborhoods. The highway loses its raised concrete

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...

after entering the city of

and intersecting Plaza Way near the

Walla Walla County Fairgrounds In American radio, film, television, and video games, walla is a sound effect imitating the murmur of a crowd in the background. A group of actors brought together in the post-production stage of film production to create this murmur is known as ...

. SR 125 then turns north onto 9th Avenue and crosses over a railroad carrying a branch of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

. The highway passes through a commercial district west of downtown Walla Walla on 9th Avenue and crosses over Mill Creek before turning west onto Pine Street. SR 125 travels parallel to U.S. Route 12 (US 12) on Pine Street for four blocks, crossing under a railroad viaduct in the process, before turning north onto 13th Avenue and passing under US 12. Pine Street continues west as a

spur route A spur route is a short road forming a branch from a longer, more important road such as a freeway, Interstate Highway, or motorway. A bypass or beltway should not be considered a true spur route as it typically reconnects with another or the s ...

that connects directly to US 12 at an interchange with Myra Road. SR 125 continues north through an industrial area with several railroad crossings and warehouses to the

Washington State Penitentiary Washington State Penitentiary (also called the Walla Walla State Penitentiary) is a Washington State Department of Corrections men's prison located in Walla Walla, Washington. With an operating capacity of 2,200, it is the second largest priso ...

. The two-lane highway serves the main entrance of the penitentiary and travels along its eastern and northern boundary before leaving Walla Walla

city limit City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. Similarly, corporate limi ...

s. SR 125 begins its ascent from the

Walla Walla Valley The Walla Walla River is a tributary of the Columbia River, joining the Columbia just above Wallula Gap in southeastern Washington (state), Washington in the United States. The river flows through Umatilla County, Oregon, and Walla Walla County, ...

into the hilly

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, primaril ...

near Valley Grove and begins following the Columbia Walla Walla Railroad, a

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

connecting Walla Walla to

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

. The highway and railroad travel northwest along the floor of Spring Valley, making several turns as they pass through the rural communities of Hadley, Berryman, and

Ennis Ennis () is the county town of County Clare, in the mid-west of Ireland. The town lies on the River Fergus, north of where the river widens and enters the Shannon Estuary. Ennis is the largest town in County Clare, with a population of 25,27 ...

. SR 125 then turns northeast near Dry Creek and descends from the hills to reach a bridge crossing the

Touchet River The Touchet River is a tributary of the Walla Walla River in southeastern Washington in the United States. The Touchet River drains an area of about in Columbia County and Walla Walla County.Washington Road & Recreation Atlas, Benchmark Maps, ...

. The highway terminates beyond the bridge at a junction with SR 124, located west of Prescott. SR 125 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 (state), Washington. Establi ...

(WSDOT). The Oregon–Walla Walla section of the highway is designated as a Highway of Statewide Significance and as part of the National Highway System. WSDOT conducts an annual survey of average traffic volume on the state highway system that is measured 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 ...

. Daily traffic volumes on SR 125 range from a minimum of 430 vehicles near its northern terminus in Prescott to a maximum of 21,000 vehicles near Fort Walla Walla Park.

History

SR 125 follows a section of the

, the first American

constructed in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. It was built by the U.S. military in the early 1860s and connected

Fort Walla Walla Fort Walla Walla is a United States Army fort located in Walla Walla, Washington. The first Fort Walla Walla was established July 1856, by Lieutenant Colonel Edward Steptoe, 9th Infantry Regiment. A second Fort Walla Walla was occupied Septemb ...

to Fort Benton in Montana, following Spring Valley towards modern-day Prescott and continuing north to

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 east across the

Idaho Panhandle The Idaho Panhandle—locally known as North Idaho—is a salient region of the U.S. state of Idaho encompassing the state's 10 northernmost counties: Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, and Shosh ...

. The Mullan Road, itself a part of the Fort Colville Military Road, was the primary means of overland transport from Walla Walla until the completion of the

Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad The Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad that operated a 46 miles (74 km) of track running east from Wallula, Washington, United States to Walla Walla, Washington Walla Walla is a city in Walla Walla County, ...

in 1875. The railroad, which later came under the ownership of the

Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (OR&N) was a railroad that operated a rail network of running east from Portland, Oregon, United States, to northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, and northern Idaho. It operated from 1896 as a ...

(OR&N), was joined by a southern branch built in 1883 to connect Walla Walla and Milton, Oregon. The OR&N Company also built a northern branch in 1881 along the Mullan Road from Walla Walla to Prescott (named for a railroad official) and Waitsburg. A second north–south railroad between Walla Walla and Milton was built in 1907 to the west for

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...

service, operated by the Walla Walla Valley Railway until it was converted to freight use in 1931. The existing roads from Milton-Freewater to Prescott were improved and partially paved at the behest of

good roads The Good Roads Movement occurred in the United States between the late 1870s and the 1920s. It was the rural dimension of the Progressive movement. A key player was the United States Post Office Department. Once a commitment was made for Rural Fre ...

promoters and automobile clubs. By the early 1920s, the Walla Walla–Milton section was part of two signed

auto trail The system of auto trails was an informal network of marked routes that existed in the United States and Canada in the early part of the 20th century. Marked with colored bands on utility poles, the trails were intended to help travellers in ...

s: the

Theodore Roosevelt International Highway The Theodore Roosevelt International Highway was a transcontinental North American highway, from the era of the auto trails, through the United States and Canada that ran from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. Its length was about . Route desc ...

and the California-Banff Bee Line. This section was also incorporated into the Washington state highway system in 1923 as a branch of the

Inland Empire Highway Primary State Highways were major state highways in the U.S. state of Washington used in the early 20th century. They were created as the first organized road numbering system in the state in stages between 1905 and 1937 and used until the 1964 ...

(numbered State Road 3 and

U.S. Route 410 U.S. Route 410 (US 410) was a U.S. Highway in Washington and Idaho that existed from 1926 to 1967. It ran from US 101 in Aberdeen, Washington, to US 95 in Lewiston, Idaho, passing through the cities of Olympia, Tacoma, Yak ...

). State Road 3 was replaced in 1937 by Primary State Highway 3 (PSH 3) in a major reorganization of the state highway system that also added suffixed secondary routes. The unpaved Walla Walla–Prescott road was assigned the designation of Secondary State Highway 3E (SSH 3E), which continued east from Prescott to Waitsburg. SSH 3E was fully paved by the mid-1940s and sections were rebuilt and realigned in 1955 after floods damaged the road. The Walla Walla city government suggested several unmade changes to SSH 3E in the 1950s and 1960s, including rerouting of its approach to the city to use North 9th Avenue, and a western bypass to directly link to the Milton-Freewater Highway in College Place. During the 1964 state highway renumbering, SSH 3E was split between two new state routes: SR 124, which would be combined SSH 3D to form a continuous route from Burbank to Waitsburg, and SR 125, which would use the PSH 3 branch to the Oregon state line and the remainder of SSH 3E. During the routing debate for

Interstate 82 Interstate 82 (I-82) is an Interstate Highway in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States that travels through parts of Washington and Oregon. It runs from its northwestern terminus at I-90 in Ellensburg, Washington, to its southeaste ...

in the late 1960s, the SR 125 and OR 11 corridor was considered as a potential option, but was rejected in favor of the

Umatilla Bridge The Umatilla Bridge is the collective name for a pair of bridges in the northwest United States, carrying Interstate 82/U.S. Route 395 (I-82/US 395) across the Columbia River at the Washington–Oregon border. The older bridge opened in Jul ...

compromise. The state governments of Oregon and Washington began considering expansion and modernization of the two-lane highway carrying SR 125 and OR 11 in the mid-1960s, following over 400 collisions and 15 deaths in less than a decade. The four-lane

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 ...

with a wide median and signalized intersections would also include a western bypass of downtown Walla Walla for SR 125 and a direct connection to a proposed east–west freeway carrying US 12 (the successor to both US 410 and PSH 3). Three principal routes were presented for public consideration in 1967, each with varying levels of opposition due to potential costs, impacts to homes and businesses, and the taking of protected lands near Fort Walla Walla Park. The rejection of several new options presented by the state highway department contributed to the project being delayed into the mid-1970s, along with inflation and the ongoing oil crisis. The US 12 freeway was completed in October 1973 without a direct connection to SR 125, which would use the 13th Avenue underpass. The state legislature delayed funding for the SR 125 project while the new state department of transportation re-evaluated the Fort Walla Walla Park plan. An abridged version of the project, consisting solely of the four-lane highway expansion without the western bypass, was approved for construction in 1985 and its $4.2 million cost was fully funded using a new state

gas tax A fuel tax (also known as a petrol, gasoline or gas tax, or as a fuel duty) is an excise tax imposed on the sale of fuel. In most countries the fuel tax is imposed on fuels which are intended for transportation. Fuels used to power agricultural v ...

. Construction began in August 1987 to build the divided highway, which would smooth out curves, include a

frontage road A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. A frontage road is often used to provide access to private drivew ...

, and use a concrete median barrier instead of a

center turn lane A reversible lane (British English: tidal flow) is a lane in which traffic may travel in either direction, depending on certain conditions. Typically, it is meant to improve traffic flow during rush hours, by having overhead traffic lights and li ...

like the expanded OR 11. The four-lane, section of SR 125 was completed and opened to traffic in August 1988. The widening project did not relieve the highway of major collisions, however, due to the merging of traffic from side streets into the fast-moving mainline lanes with a posted

speed limit Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed - expres ...

of . The state government approved $2.3 million to equip five intersections with traffic signals in 1999 due to increased traffic and development along SR 125. The western bypass was ultimately built by the College Place city government in November 2008 as an extension of Myra Road, which was connected to US 12 with a new interchange that opened in 2010. The intersection of SR 125 and Plaza Way is the busiest in the Walla Walla area and was replaced by a roundabout in August 2021 to improve traffic flow and safety.

Spur route

SR 125 has a short

that connects the mainline to an interchange with US 12. The spur route travels west for along Pine Street from SR 125 at 13th Avenue to a

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

with Myra Road, where it turns north and terminates at a

dogbone 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 ...

with US 12. An estimated 4,600 vehicles use the spur route on a daily basis, based on average daily traffic volumes calculated by WSDOT. The spur route was established in 1990, providing a direct connection from mainline SR 125 to US 12. The original intersection with US 12 at Myra Road was replaced by an interchange that opened on July 23, 2010. The new interchange extended the length of SR 125 Spur from to its present .

Major intersections

References

External links

*
Highways of Washington State
{{DEFAULTSORT:State Route 125

125 125 may refer to: * 125 (number), a natural number *AD 125, a year in the 2nd century AD * 125 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *125 (dinghy) * 125 (New Jersey bus) See also * 12/5 (disambiguation) * Unbipentium An extended periodic table the ...

Transportation in Walla Walla County, Washington