Washington State Route 510

State Route 510 (SR 510) is a state highway in Thurston County, Washington. The 13 miles (20.9 km) long highway extends southeast from an interchange with Interstate 5 (I-5) in Lacey to SR 507 in Yelm. SR 510 roughly parallels the Nisqually River, the border between Thurston and Pierce counties, between the Fort Lewis and Nisqually Indian Community area to Yelm.

State Route 510
A map of the area located between Tacoma and Chehalis showing SR 510, highlighted in red.
Route information
Auxiliary route of I-5
Maintained by WSDOT
Length	13.10 mi^[1] (21.08 km)
Existed	1964^[2]–present
Major junctions
West end	I-5 in Lacey
East end	SR 507 in Yelm
Location
Country	United States
State	Washington
Highway system
State highways in Washington Interstate US State Scenic Pre-1964 1964 renumbering Former
← SR 509 → SR 512

The roadway was built by 1916 as a connector from Saint Clair Lake to the Northern Pacific Railway station in Yelm and was designated as Secondary State Highway 5I (SSH 5I) in 1937. The original route of SSH 5I ran from Tumwater east to Yelm, following the present-day Yelm Highway. In 1959, the highway was realigned to serve a new freeway, later I-5, in Lacey; SSH 5I was replaced in the 1964 highway renumbering by SR 510. The Yelm-Tenino Trail was built over the Northern Pacific line in 1993 and a bypass is being constructed around Yelm.

Route description

SR 510 begins as Marvin Road at exit 111, a diverging diamond interchange on Interstate 5 (I-5) in southern Lacey.^[3] The highway travels south by the Hawks Prairie Village Mall, home of the Hawks Prairie Center, a division of the South Puget Sound Community College.^[4][5] South of the mall is the Martin Way intersection, located west of River Ridge High School and one of the busiest intersections on the roadway at a daily average of 24,000 motorists in 2008,^[6][7] and the Pacific Avenue roundabout,^[1] where SR 510 turns east, renamed Pacific Avenue, northeast of Long Lake. After leaving Lacey city limits, the roadway begins to parallel the Quadlok line owned by Tacoma Rail south towards the Old Pacific Highway.^[8][9] At the Old Pacific Highway, the road becomes the St. Clair Cutoff Road, named for nearby Saint Clair Lake, and crosses the railroad tracks twice. After turning northeast, parallel to Saint Clair Lake's shoreline, the highway dips southeast, now parallel to the Nisqually River, into Fort Lewis and the Nisqually Indian Community. Outside of the community, SR 510 is renamed the Yelm Highway and passes Southworth Elementary. After intersecting Mudd Run Road, future western terminus of the Yelm Loop,^[10] the roadway enters Yelm city limits. After turning southeast, SR 510 becomes Yelm Avenue and serves Yelm High School. Shortly thereafter, the roadway crosses the Yelm-Tenino Trail, a 7.4-mile (11.9 km) long rail trail in operation since 1993,^[11] and ends at First Street, signed as SR 507, which continues southeast as Yelm Avenue.^[1][12]

History

SR 510 began as an unsigned county-maintained road that ran from the Saint Clair Lake area to the Northern Pacific Railway station at Yelm, constructed by 1916.^[13] The road later extended west to Tumwater and designated Secondary State Highway 5I (SSH 5I) in 1937.^[14] The old route followed present-day Yelm Highway on the southern side of Saint Clair Lake and Patterson Lake to Tumwater.^[15][16] In 1959, SSH 5I was moved to a northern route to the U.S. Route 99 (US 99) and US 410 freeway in Lacey.^[17] SR 510 officially replaced SSH 5I after the 1964 highway renumbering; US 99 and US 410 also became Interstate 5 (I-5) in 1968.^[2][18][19]

SR 510 between I-5 and Pacific Avenue was reconstructed and widened in late 2003, with the addition of a roundabout at the Pacific Avenue intersection.^[20] The I-5 interchange was replaced by a diverging diamond interchange that began construction in October 2018 and opened in August 2020.^[21][22] The interchange was the first diverging diamond constructed in Washington and is estimated to cost $72 million, with funding provided by the state legislature's 2015 Connecting Washington package.^[23]

Alternate route

State Route 510 Alternate
Location	Yelm
Length	1.17 mi^[1] (1.88 km)
Existed	2010–present

State Route 510 Alternate, also known as the Yelm Loop, is a partially completed bypass of Yelm. The first, 1.17-mile (1.88 km)^[1] section opened to traffic in October 2010 and cost $4.3 million to construct.^[24][25] The 120-foot (36.58 m) wide, two-lane highway begins at a roundabout with SR 510 near the current Mudd Run Road intersection and travels east through a residential and industrial area, ending at Cullins Road.^[10] The bypass was designed in the 1990s in response to increasing traffic congestion and was funded by the Washington State Legislature in 2009.^[24][26]

The second phase of the Yelm Loop project, which would finish the loop and extend it to SR 507, remained unfunded after the completion of the first phase. The state legislature's 2015 "Connecting Washington" transportation package will fund the $67 million second phase beginning in 2019.^[27]

Major intersections

The entire highway is in Thurston County.

Location	mi^[1]	km	Destinations	Notes
Lacey	0.00	0.00	I-5 – Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia
​	10.94	17.61	SR 510 Alt. east
Yelm	13.10	21.08	SR 507 (First Street) – Spanaway, Centralia
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

1. Multimodal Planning Division (March 1, 2016). State Highway Log Planning Report 2015, SR 2 to SR 971 (PDF) (Report). Washington State Department of Transportation. pp. 1480–1486. Retrieved August 19, 2016.{{cite report}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
2. Washington State Legislature. "RCW 47.17.685: State route No. 510". Retrieved November 11, 2009.
3. Washington State Department of Transportation (September 17, 2004). "SR 5 – Exit 111; Junction SR 510 / Marvin Road" (PDF). Retrieved November 11, 2009.
4. South Puget Sound Community College (2006). "South Puget Sound Community College – Hawks Prairie Center". Retrieved November 11, 2009.
5. South Puget Sound Community College. "Directions to Hawks Prairie Center: A Division of South Puget Sound Community College". Retrieved November 11, 2009.
6. North Thurston Public Schools (2009). . Archived from the original on June 8, 2008. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
7. Washington State Department of Transportation (2008). (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 16, 2010. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
8. Tacoma Rail (2009). "TPU Rail Capital Division". Retrieved November 11, 2009.
9. (PDF) (Map). Washington State Department of Transportation. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 5, 2011. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
10. Washington State Department of Transportation (2009). "SR 510 Yelm Loop Aerial" (PDF). Retrieved November 11, 2009.
11. Thurston County Parks and Recreation (2009). "Yelm to Tenino Trail". Retrieved November 11, 2009.
12. Google (November 11, 2009). "State Route 510" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
13. Chehalis, 1916 (Map). 1:125,000. Washington 1:125,000 topographic quadrangles. Cartography by United States Geological Survey. Washington State University. 1916. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
14. Washington State Legislature (March 18, 1937). "Chapter 207: Classification of Public Highways". Session Laws of the State of Washington. Session Laws of the State of Washington (1937 ed.). Olympia: Washington State Legislature. p. 1003. Retrieved November 11, 2009. (h) Secondary State Highway No. 5I; beginning at Yelm on Secondary State Highway No. 5H, thence in a northwesterly direction by the most feasible route to Tumwater on Primary State Highway No. 1.
15. Hoquiam, 1951 (Map). 1:250,000. Cartography by United States Geological Survey. University of Texas at Austin. 1951. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
16. Hoquiam, 1958 (Map). 1:250,000. Cartography by United States Geological Survey. University of Texas at Austin. 1958. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
17. Washington State Legislature (1959). "Chapter 319". Session Laws of the State of Washington. Session Laws of the State of Washington (1959 ed.). Olympia: Washington State Legislature.
18. C. G. Prahl; Washington State Highway Commission, Department of Highways (December 1, 1965). "Identification of State Highways" (PDF). Washington State Department of Transportation. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
19. Seattle, 1965 (Map). 1:250,000. Cartography by United States Geological Survey. University of Texas at Austin. 1965. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
20. Hill, Christian (July 29, 2003). "One jam done, another begins". The Olympian. Olympia, Washington. p. A1.
21. Boone, Rolf (October 29, 2018). "One of the biggest road projects in Thurston County gets started Monday night". The Olympian. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
22. Boone, Rolf (August 3, 2020). "Long awaited 'diverging diamond' interchange opens in Lacey". The Olympian. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
23. Spegman, Abby (May 3, 2018). "Coming soon to Lacey: This bizarre-looking interchange, the first of its kind in Washington". The Olympian. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
24. Washington State Department of Transportation (2013). "SR 510 – Yelm Loop". Retrieved July 17, 2013.
25. (Press release). Washington State Department of Transportation. October 20, 2010. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
26. Leventis, Angie (August 23, 2005). . The News Tribune. Tacoma, Washington. Archived from the original on August 6, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
27. Wyble, Steven; Inveen, Cooper (March 5, 2015). "Transportation Bill Includes $67 Million to Complete SR 510 Yelm Loop". Yelm Online. Retrieved August 19, 2016.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Washington State Route 510.

Route map:

Template:Attached KML/Washington State Route 510

KML is from Wikidata

• Highways of Washington State
• WSDOT Construction Projects
  • SR 510 – Yelm Loop Project
• WSDOT Completed Construction Projects