Portal:U.S. roads/Selected article/February 2019



State Route 99 (SR 99), also known as the Pacific Highway, is a state highway in the Seattle metropolitan area, part of the U.S. state of Washington. It runs 49 mi from Fife in the south to Everett in the north, passing through the cities of Federal Way, SeaTac, Seattle, Shoreline, and Lynnwood. The route primarily follows arterial streets that once formed part of U.S. Route 99 (US 99) but has several freeway segments, including the SR 99 Tunnel in Downtown Seattle. US 99 was created in 1926 and replaced earlier local roads that date back to the 1890s and state roads designated as early as 1913. The highway was moved onto the Alaskan Way Viaduct in 1953, replacing a congested stretch through Downtown Seattle, and other sections were built to expressway standards in the 1950s. US 99 was ultimately replaced by the Tacoma–Everett section of Interstate 5 (I-5), which opened in stages between 1965 and 1969. After decades of rampant crime on some sections of SR 99, created to keep sections of the highway under state control, various city governments funded projects to beautify the highway and convert it into a boulevard. The Alaskan Way Viaduct was closed on January 11, 2019, and is planned to be replaced with a downtown bored tunnel that is scheduled to open on February 4, 2019. The $3 billion replacement project was spurred by the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, which damaged the viaduct and left it vulnerable to further damage, as well as city plans to revitalize the Seattle waterfront, but was mired in planning delays for several years before construction began in 2013 using Bertha, the world's largest tunnel boring machine.

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