page_title: Washington State Route 99
section_title: Street and bridge improvements
hierarchical_section_title: Washington State Route 99 / History / Street and bridge improvements
caption_attribution_description: Overhead view of International Boulevard (formerly Washington State Route 99 in Tukwila, Washington, seen looking north from the Link light rail station
context_page_description: State Route 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 miles 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 but has several freeway segments, including the SR 99 Tunnel in Downtown Seattle. SR 99 was officially named the William P. Stewart Memorial Highway by the state legislature in 2016, after a campaign to replace an unofficial moniker honoring Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
  SR 99 was originally a section of U.S. Route 99, which was once the state's primary north–south highway. 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, which opened in stages between 1965 and 1969.
context_section_description: Sections of SR 99 in North Seattle along Aurora Avenue and in South King County declined economically after the opening of Interstate 5, losing businesses amid increased crime. It became notorious havens for drug dealers, prostitutes, the homeless, and strip clubs by the 1970s and 1980s. The 17-mile (27 km) stretch from Federal Way to Tukwila in South King County, popularly known as the "SeaTac Strip", was where the Green River Killer (Gary Ridgway) picked up many of his victims in the 1980s. The highway was also unsafe for pedestrians and cross-traffic due to the lack of crossings and improper management of utility lines and overgrown foliage.
  In an effort to clean up sections of the corridor, various cities have undertaken reconstruction projects in the 1990s and 2000s to turn the highway into a landscaped boulevard. In southern King County, the cities of Federal Way, SeaTac, and Tukwila drew up redevelopment plans that were largely built out in the 2000s, reducing traffic collisions and crime while improving the area's appearance. After being denied permission to plant trees along SR 99, the city of Tukwila requested control of the highway within its city limits and was granted a jurisdictional transfer in 2004 by the state legislature, allowing them to redevelop 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of International Boulevard into a new street with traffic calming features.
  The city of Shoreline was incorporated in 1995 and made the redevelopment of Aurora Avenue into an early priority, completing its $140 million modernization and multi-use trail project in stages between 2008 and 2017. The project included new traffic signals, BAT lanes, underground utility lines, and two pedestrian bridges. Edmonds plans to add widened sidewalks with planted buffer zones, new crosswalks, and turn lane pockets to its 2.5-mile (4.0 km) section of SR 99 beginning in 2021. The city of Seattle also plans to improve its section of Aurora Avenue North, but funding shortages and the timing of WSDOT repaving projects have led to a lack of sidewalks along some sections of the street.
  The Aurora Bridge, part of the expressway linking Aurora Avenue to downtown Seattle, was the site of frequent suicide jumps until a set of emergency phones and new fences were installed in 2011 at a cost of $4.6 million to deter would-be jumpers. The bridge and its expansion joints underwent a major seismic retrofit that was completed in 2012 at a cost of $5.7 million; the retrofit was followed by a repainting and repaving project that was completed in two stages between 2016 and 2018 at a cost of $35 million. On September 24, 2015, a collision between an amphibious Duck tour vehicle and a charter bus on the Aurora Bridge killed four people and injured 50 more. The incident raised questions regarding the safety of Aurora Bridge, which lacks a median barrier and is the narrowest six-lane bridge in the state, with a lane width of 9.5 feet (2.9 m). Other sections of Aurora Avenue were retrofitted to install median barriers in 1973, and the state government considered a 2003 plan to put barriers on the bridge and relocate the sidewalks to compensate for the additional weight but ultimately deferred any improvements. In the aftermath of the crash and its three-year-long court case, WSDOT and the Seattle Department of Transportation have argued over whether to install a center barrier or median zipper system, and which agency would be responsible for funding either option.
caption: International Boulevard in Tukwila, formerly part of SR 99 until a jurisdictional transfer in 2004
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