Washington State Route 6

State highway in Washington, United States

State Route 6 (SR 6) is a 51.37 mile (83 km) long state highway in Pacific and Lewis counties in the U. S. state of Washington. The highway, which extends from U. S. Route 101 (US 101) in Raymond east to Interstate 5 (I 5), co signed with US 12, in Chehalis. Major communities located on the highway include Raymond, Pe Ell, Adna and Chehalis. The first state highway that used the current route of SR 6 was State Road 19, established in 1913. State Road 19 became State Road 12 in 1923, which became Primary State Highway 12 (PSH 12) in 1937. In 1964, PSH 12 became SR 6 and since, three minor construction projects have been arranged, only two have been completed.

SR 6 begins at an intersection with U. S. Route 101 (US 101) in Downtown Raymond as Henkle Street. The road leaves the community and continues thru Littell, then into Claquato, intersecting the former SR 603. After crossing the Chehalis River for the final time into Chehalis, the roadway ends at a diamond interchange with Interstate 5 (I 5), co signed with US 12. The busiest segment of SR 6 in 2007 was the I 5 / US 12 interchange in Chehalis, with an estimated daily average of 13,000 motorists. In 1970, the busiest segment was the US 101 intersection in Raymond, with an estimated daily average of 4,800 motorists.

The first state highway to be designated on the modern corridor of SR 6 was State Road 19, which was designated in 1913. A gravel road was built through the Willapa Hills in 1917, but had steep switchbacks and frequent damage from storms. During a 1923 renumbering of the state road system, State Road 19 became State Road 12, which ran from Megler north to Raymond and east to Chehalis. Primary State Highway 12 (PSH 12) replaced State Road 12 when the Primary state highways were created in 1937; PSH 12 didn't begin in Megler, but began in Kelso. Between Raymond and Chehalis, PSH 12 was paralleled by numerous railroads that have changed over time. In 1951, the Northern Pacific Railway followed the route from Raymond to Chehalis, but by 1958, the Pe Ell Prairie Railroad replaced Northern Pacific from Pe Ell to Dryad and the Chehalis Western Railroad, now the Chehalis Western Trail, replaced Northern Pacific between Adna and Chehalis. In 1968, the Chehalis Western Railroad no longer operated in the Adna area and the last railroad to parallel current SR 6 was the Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad, During the 1964 highway renumbering, PSH 12 was split into US 830, US 101 and SR 6. The only other highway to intersect SR 6 was SR 603, the only auxiliary route of the highway, which was established in 1964 and decommissioned in 1991. The roadway was reopened for limited access by the end of the month while work began on clearing debris on the unstable slope. The section fully reopened to traffic on March 16, 2008. During the stabilization of the slope near Pe Ell, similar work started in February on another slope located near Frances that was finished in late April. The highway's 22 feet (7 m) bridge over the South Fork of the Chehalis River west of Chehalis was originally built in 1925 and was replaced by the state government in 2009. The new bridge, measuring 40 feet (12 m) wide, was constructed to the north of the existing structure and was opened to traffic in September 2009. The project was the first of four bridge replacements on SR 6 that were funded by the 2005 transportation package. It carries a section of the Willapa Hills Trail and was named the Littell Bridge. A 6.0 mile (10 km) section near Adna was for Justin R. Schaffer, a member of the Washington State Patrol (WSP) who died while on duty; he graduated high school in Adna.