State Route 501 (SR 501, designated as the Erwin O. Rieger Memorial Highway) 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 Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

in the southern part of 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 so ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. It is split into two sections in

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, a north–south alignment connecting

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, 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 thro ...

(I-5) in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

to the Port of Vancouver and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, and a west–east alignment connecting Ridgefield to I-5. Prior to the 1964 highway renumbering, SR 501 was designated as Secondary State Highway 1T (SSH 1T), established in 1937 and re-aligned to serve the Port of Vancouver in 1963.

Route description

Southern section

The southern section of SR 501 and the Erwin O. Rieger Memorial Highway begins as the four-lane Mill Plain Boulevard at 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 separation, grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. ...

with I-5 in Downtown

. The highway travels west through Downtown Vancouver and splits into a

one-way pair A one-way pair, one-way couple, or couplet refers to that portion of a bi-directional traffic facilitysuch as a road, bus, streetcar, or light rail linewhere its opposing flows exist as two independent and roughly parallel facilities. Descriptio ...

on Mill Plain Boulevard and 15th Street before rejoining as Mill Plain Boulevard. SR 501 crosses a

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of Track (rail transport), tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for k ...

and enters the Port of Vancouver, becoming the Lower River Road and narrowing to a two-lane highway on the south side of Vancouver Lake. The highway follows the Columbia and

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

rivers north past the Shillapoo Wildlife Recreation Area, ending south of Post Office Lake in the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. 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 (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 year divided ...

(AADT), which is a measure of traffic volume for any average day of the year. In 2011, WSDOT calculated that the busiest section of SR 501 overall was west of I-5 at C Street, serving 13,000 vehicles, while the least busiest section of SR 501 overall was south of Shillapoo Wildlife Recreation Area, serving 650 vehicles. Between I-5 and the Port of Vancouver, SR 501 is designated as part of WSDOT's Highway of Statewide Significance, which include

interstate highways The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National H ...

and other principal arterials that are needed to connect major communities in the

state of Washington Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

Northern section

The northern section of SR 501 within Ridgefield begins as Pioneer Street at an intersection with Main Avenue at the Ridgefield City Hall. The highway travels east through Downtown Ridgefield, passing View Ridge Middle School, before crossing over Gee Creek. SR 501 continues east through two roundabouts, at 45th Avenue and 56th Place, before ending at a diamond interchange with I-5. Every year, WSDOT conducts a series of surveys on its highways in the state to measure traffic volume. This is expressed in terms of 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 northern section was the I-5 interchange, serving 11,000 vehicles, while the least busiest section was the intersection with Main Street in Downtown Ridgefield, serving 3,200 vehicles. As of July 6, 2024, the Northern Section between the western Ridgefield City Limits and the eastern terminus at Interstate 5 was transferred to the City of Ridgefield through the Route Jurisdiction Transfer process, enacted by House Bill 2318, unanimously approved by the 68th Legislature 2024 Regular Session, and signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee on March 13, 2024. (https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2023-24/Pdf/Bills/Session%20Laws/House/2318.SL.pdf?q=20241215075257) (https://ridgefieldwa.portal.civicclerk.com/event/645/files/attachment/798).

History

SSH 1T was created in 1937 during the formation of the primary and secondary state highways, traveling on a route north from Primary State Highway 1 (PSH 1) and U.S. Route 99 (US 99) in

through Felida and Ridgefield to PSH 1 and US 99 at Pioneer. The highway was extended into Vancouver in the 1950s and re-aligned in 1963 to serve the Port of Vancouver, traveling along the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

to Ridgefield west of Vancouver Lake onto a roadway that was to be constructed. The state highway commission realigned the highway onto a pair of

one-way street One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typicall ...

s within Vancouver in late 1968. The first section of the Columbia River segment was completed in 1969, but the remainder never left the design phase. SSH 1T became SR 501 during the 1964 highway renumbering and codified as such in 1970, being designated as the Erwin O. Rieger Memorial Highway in 1991. In the late 1990s, Mill Plain Boulevard was extended west from downtown Vancouver to the industrial area west of the railyard to serve the Port of Vancouver. The $35 million project was dedicated on September 30, 2000, and incorporated into SR 501. The section of the highway between the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and the city of Ridgefield has never been constructed and remains as a physical gap in the state highway system. The interchange between I-5 and SR 501 east of Ridgefield was rebuilt by

WSDOT 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 ...

between 2010 and 2012, adding roundabouts at intersections west and east of the interchange as well. On July 14, 2015, WSDOT permanently closed the northern of SR 501's southern section due to the

reclaiming the highway. That part of the highway was relinquished to

in 2016. Eventually, that section was vacated to surrounding property owners.

Major intersections

References

External links

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

501 __NOTOC__ Year 501 ( DI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Avienus and Pompeius (or, less frequently, year 1254 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 501 fo ...

Transportation in Clark County, Washington