Washington State Route 204

File:Lake Stevens Frontier Village 1.JPG at Frontier Village in Lake Stevens]]

SR 204 begins in Cavalero Corner at an interchange with US 2 at the east end of the Hewitt Avenue Trestle, which crosses Ebey Island and connects the highway to Everett. The interchange has direct ramps connecting SR 204 to westbound US 2 and an intersection for traffic heading east on 20th Street Southeast and southeast on US 2 towards Snohomish.{{cite web |date=March 6, 2016 |title=SR 2: Junction SR 204/20th Street SE |url=https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/mapsdata/tools/InterchangeViewer/pdf/SR002/002X002.pdf |publisher=Washington State Department of Transportation |access-date=October 13, 2018}}{{cite map |author=Washington State Department of Transportation |year=2014 |title=Washington State Highways, 2014–2015 |url=https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2006/06/13/TouristMapFront_withoutHillshade.pdf |inset=[https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2017/08/31/highway-map-PugetSound_Full.pdf Puget Sound] |location=Olympia |publisher=Washington State Department of Transportation |access-date=October 13, 2018 |archive-date=February 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221194441/https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/2D10703F-9ADF-4A95-A14E-2A36FEAF1C20/0/Statewide2014NoHillshade.pdf |url-status=dead }} The highway ascends from the Snohomish River estuary and runs northeasterly along the edge of several suburban neighborhoods before entering the city of Lake Stevens.{{cite map |date=November 2017 |title=City of Lake Stevens – Street and Address Map 2017 |url=https://www.lakestevenswa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6002/Streets-Address-Map-2017 |publisher=City of Lake Stevens |access-date=October 13, 2018}} SR 204 has few intersections with cross streets and is primarily a three-lane road with one westbound lane and two eastbound lanes. After crossing under a set of transmission lines near Market Place, the highway widens to four lanes and enters the Frontier Village commercial district. SR 204 terminates in the center of the district at a junction with SR 9, which continues north to Arlington and south to Snohomish.{{google maps |title=State Route 204 |url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/47.9781949,-122.1376853/48.0028575,-122.1062954/@47.9905648,-122.1395003,14z/am=t/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!4m1!3e0 |access-date=October 13, 2018}}

SR 204 is maintained by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which conducts an annual survey on state highways to measure traffic volume in terms of annual average daily traffic. Average traffic volumes on the highway in 2016 ranged from a minimum of 5,800 vehicles at its interchange with US 2 to a maximum of 38,000 after the interchange. A section west of Frontier Village had an average volume of 21,000 vehicles in 2016.{{cite report |year=2017 |title=2016 Annual Traffic Report |pages=162–163 |url=http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/mapsdata/travel/pdf/Annual_Traffic_Report_2016.pdf |publisher=Washington State Department of Transportation |access-date=October 13, 2018 |archive-date=August 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170812180326/http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/mapsdata/travel/pdf/Annual_Traffic_Report_2016.pdf |url-status=dead }} The entire route is also designated as a MAP-21 principal arterial route under the National Highway System.{{cite web |year=2017 |title=State Highway National Highway System Routes in Washington |url=https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/mapsdata/travel/hpms/pdf/washington-2017-state-highway-nhs-list.pdf |publisher=Washington State Department of Transportation |access-date=October 13, 2018}}{{cite map |date=March 25, 2015 |title=National Highway System: Marysville, WA |url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/national_highway_system/nhs_maps/washington/marysville_wa.pdf |publisher=Federal Highway Administration |access-date=October 14, 2018}}

File:Washington State Route 204 eastbound from US 2 near Lake Stevens, 2020.jpg

The original route of the Pacific Highway between Everett and the rest of northwestern Washington ran across Ebey Island and turned north onto Sunnyside Boulevard at Cavalero Corner before continuing into Marysville.{{cite web |last=Dougherty |first=Phil |date=May 10, 2007 |title=Roadway known as the Marysville-Everett cutoff opens on August 23, 1927. |url=http://www.historylink.org/File/8159 |work=HistoryLink |access-date=October 14, 2018}} Vernon Road, constructed in the 1910s and paved in 1916,{{cite web |date=January 2014 |title=Washington State's Historic State Roads: Historic Context for Island, Snohomish, King, Pierce, and Kitsap Counties |pages=152–153 |url=https://dahp.wa.gov/sites/default/files/Roads%20Historic%20Context.pdf |publisher=Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation |access-date=October 13, 2018}} branched off from Sunnyside Boulevard at the bottom of Cavalero Hill and traveled northeasterly along the shore of Lake Stevens to the settlement of Hartford.{{cite map |year=1943 |title=Marysville Quadrangle, Washington (Snohomish County) |type=Topographic map |scale=1:62,500 |publisher=United States Geological Survey |url=https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/img4/ht_icons/Browse/WA/WA_Marysville_242203_1943_62500.jpg |access-date=October 13, 2018}} The Pacific Highway was moved in the late 1920s to a more direct route traversing set of new bridges across the Snohomish River estuary, while the Ebey Island road itself was replaced by the completed Hewitt Avenue Trestle in 1936.{{cite news |date=January 16, 1936 |title=Everett Delta Bridge Opened |page=4 |work=The Seattle Times}}

Vernon Road was added to the reformed state highway system in 1937 as part of Secondary State Highway 15A (SSH 15A), connecting Primary State Highway 15 (PSH 15) with SSH 1A in Lake Stevens and the city of Granite Falls.{{cite book |date=March 18, 1937 |title=Session Laws of the State of Washington, 1937 |chapter=Chapter 207: Classification of Public Highways |page=1010 |chapter-url=http://leg.wa.gov/CodeReviser/documents/sessionlaw/1937c207.pdf |publisher=Washington State Legislature |access-date=October 14, 2018}} SSH 15A was moved onto a new highway bypassing Vernon Road in 1954, ahead of work to rebuild the interchange with PSH 15 (by then part of US 2).{{cite news |date=October 1956 |title=Construction |page=21 |work=Washington Highway News |volume=8 |issue=8 |publisher=Washington State Department of Highways |oclc=29654162 |url=https://cdm16977.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16977coll1/id/2401/ |via=WSDOT Library Digital Collections |access-date=October 14, 2018}} During the state legislature's 1964 renumbering of the state highway system, SSH 15A was split into two routes: SR 204 from Cavalero Corner to SSH 1A; and SR 92 from northwestern Lake Stevens to Granite Falls.{{cite web |last=Prahl |first=C. G. |date=December 1, 1965 |title=Identification of State Highways |url=https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2005/04/26/Identification-of-state-highways.pdf |publisher=Washington State Highway Commission |access-date=June 20, 2009 |archive-date=February 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217112902/https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/6836215D-E301-43F3-895A-472BD2FDE86A/0/Identification.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |date=January 26, 1964 |title=To End Confusion: Highways Given Different Numbers |page=24 |work=The Seattle Times}} SSH 1A was renumbered to SR 9, which had been relocated in the 1950s to a new road that cut through the Frontier Village commercial district. The current interchange at Cavalero Corner between US 2 and SR 204 was opened in October 1967 as part of the expansion of the Hewitt Avenue Trestle that was completed two years later.{{cite news |date=October 14, 1967 |title=New Cavelero's Trestle Opens |page=6A |work=The Everett Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-herald-new-caveleros-trestle/143365970/ |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=November 8, 2024}}{{cite web |date=April 1969 |title=Official Opening: US 2, Everett to Cavaleros Corner |url=https://cdm16977.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16977coll3/id/217/rec/14 |publisher=Washington State Department of Highways |via=WSDOT Library Digital Collections |access-date=December 29, 2018}}

Major suburban development in the Lake Stevens area began in the 1980s, bringing increased traffic on SR 204 and the Hewitt Avenue Trestle.{{cite news |last1=Haglund |first1=Noah |last2=Bray |first2=Kari |date=May 28, 2017 |title=Explosive growth encircles once-idyllic Lake Stevens |url=https://www.heraldnet.com/news/lake-stevens-going-through-yet-another-growth-spurt/ |work=The Everett Herald |access-date=October 14, 2018}} An eastbound truck climbing lane was installed on the highway in 1988. An expansion of the US 2 interchange was completed in 1993, including an onramp from eastbound US 2 to eastbound SR 204, as part of a $100 million project to replace the Hewitt Avenue Trestle.{{cite news |last=Lobos |first=Ignacio |date=June 17, 1993 |title=Twin rivers of concrete: New Hewitt Avenue Trestle goes up as 30,000 cars a day keep flowing |page=1 |work=The Seattle Times |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19930617/1706893/twin-rivers-of-concrete |access-date=October 14, 2018}} The highway's intersection with Market Place in Frontier Village was reconstructed in 2004 as part of several city-funded improvements in the area.{{cite news |date=June 2, 2004 |title=News from Arlington and Lake Stevens |page=H24 |work=The Seattle Times}}

The state legislature's 2015 Connecting Washington budget and 2016 supplementary budget funded two studies into potential improvements to both termini on SR 204 to address traffic congestion. The Frontier Village junction with SR 9 was planned to be rebuilt as a diamond interchange, with an overpass for SR 204, that was estimated to cost $69.5 million.{{cite news |last=Stevick |first=Eric |date=August 29, 2016 |title=Congestion at Frontier Village intersection is ripe for a fix |url=https://www.heraldnet.com/news/congestion-at-frontier-village-intersection-is-ripe-for-a-fix/ |work=The Everett Herald |access-date=October 14, 2018}} In early 2019, WSDOT announced that it would re-examine an earlier concept to use roundabouts to manage the intersection at a lower cost compared to the chosen interchange option. The agency had begun subsurface investigations and discovered shallow groundwater that would impede construction of the SR 9 underpass.{{cite news |last=Giordano |first=Lizz |date=February 25, 2019 |title=Maybe 4 roundabouts can fix this nightmare intersection |url=https://www.heraldnet.com/news/maybe-4-roundabouts-can-fix-this-nightmare-intersection/ |work=The Everett Herald |access-date=February 27, 2019}}{{cite web |title=SR 9 - SR 204 Intersection Improvements |url=https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR9/SR204Improvements/default.htm |publisher=Washington State Department of Transportation |access-date=October 14, 2018}} Another earlier concept had suggested the addition of grade-separated ramps to the current intersection.{{cite news |last=Bray |first=Kari |date=May 10, 2017 |title=Meetings seek input on fixes to Highways 9, 204 interchange |url=https://www.heraldnet.com/news/meetings-seek-input-on-fixes-to-highways-9-204-interchange/ |work=The Everett Herald |access-date=October 14, 2018}} A separate study into rebuilding the US 2 interchange was completed in 2018 and recommended reconfiguration of its ramps to eliminate the current one-lane merge.{{cite news |last=Slager |first=Melissa |date=February 26, 2016 |title=U.S. 2 trestle report would be 'first step' toward new interchange |url=https://www.heraldnet.com/news/u-s-2-trestle-report-would-be-first-step-toward-new-interchange/ |work=The Everett Herald |access-date=October 14, 2018}}{{cite web |date=September 2018 |title=US 2 - SR 204 - 20th Street SE Interchange Justification Report |url=http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/planning/studies/us2/sr-204-20th-street/home |publisher=Washington State Department of Transportation |access-date=October 14, 2018}} The project's four roundabouts near Frontier Village were constructed in a year and fully opened in July 2023.{{cite news |last=Hansen |first=Jordan |date=September 2, 2023 |title=Blessing or baffling? Lake Stevens' new roundabout maze divides drivers |url=https://www.heraldnet.com/news/blessing-or-baffling-lake-stevens-new-roundabout-maze-divides-drivers/ |work=The Everett Herald |accessdate=September 3, 2023}} The number of collisions at the four intersections increased from 43 in 2022 to 92 from January to April 2024, but their severity was lessened.{{cite news |last=Sumpter |first=Shanté |date=July 1, 2024 |title=Send Shanté: Two-lane roundabouts causing trouble in Lake Stevens |url=https://www.king5.com/article/traffic/send-shante-roundabouts-lake-stevens/281-c5adebdd-bcc3-492a-92bd-5bf5c3d7ecb2 |publisher=KING 5 News |accessdate=July 2, 2024}}

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• [https://www.angelfire.com/wa2/hwysofwastate/sr204.html Highways of Washington State]

{{State highways in Washington related to US 2}}

204

Category:Transportation in Snohomish County, Washington