It has finally come: the Columbia River has eroded the northern end of SR 501's southern section to the point that it will actually close! A gate installed by WSDOT in early 2014 to prepare for this kind of closure. The gate won't affect cyclists, but concrete barriers will block the portion of SR 501 that has been eroded. The river took away one lane of SR 501.
Full story is available at this article in the The Columbian (http://www.columbian.com/news/2015/jul/12/far-segment-lower-river-road-closes-cars-tuesday/#).
As for myself, I always wanted to clinch the southern section of SR 501. I finally did because of this closure (did it by bicycle, nearly 11 miles of non-stop riding along SR 501).
Why is this road a state highway anymore at all? If it is never going to be completed, they should decommission at least the south segment of WA 501.
Glancing at the satellites, WA 501 itself wasn't meant to connect to Ridgefield. WA 501 Spur (which hugs Lake Vancouver's western shore) was - or is. And yes, WA 501 Spur's signed at the split.
It's a pity that erosion's taking out the roadway. I walked a bit past the concrete barrier at its northern extreme, and erosion had already taken out the entirety of the pavement a ways past, so it's only a matter of time the now to be closed section would go. At least we have a chance to watch nature reclaim the route.
Quote from: Bickendan on July 14, 2015, 11:07:32 AM
Glancing at the satellites, WA 501 itself wasn't meant to connect to Ridgefield. WA 501 Spur (which hugs Lake Vancouver's western shore) was - or is. And yes, WA 501 Spur's signed at the split.
Are you certain of that? It pains me to doubt you, but WSDOT's documents don't recognize an SR 501 Spur, and neither Google Street View (2011 photo) or SRweb (2012) show any such signage.
But, in the state highway log, up until 2006 they list that intersection as "Prop Alignment SR 501", so you are correct about that. (Starting in 2007, it just says "NW Lower River Rd".) But I don't think it's a state highway, bannered or otherwise.
I went through there about a month ago to clinch it, and my phone was dead so I couldn't grab a picture of the sign. It wasn't on Streetview then, and I'd be surprised if it were there now.
Weeeeeird... WSDOT posting signs for nonexistent highways is actually very unlike them.
If the spur is legal, they should just reroute 501 over it, and call it good, or use other existing roadways. The whole 501 is in two parts, never sat well with me.
Except the spur dead ends long before reaching the northern section too. Once you're on the west side of Vancouver Lake, there are no bridges over Lake River back towards Ridgefield, you're stuck in the wildlife refuge.
There is a relatively obvious route connecting the two sections (https://www.google.com/maps/dir/45.6401144,-122.6949885/45.8154202,-122.7384791/@45.7192349,-122.71625,11z/data=!4m3!4m2!3e0!5i1), which I believe was more or less the route of SSH 1-T long ago, but they rerouted the state highway in the 60s to serve more of the Port, and gave up on building anything to connect the two sections.
Not that is says anything that wasn't already spelled out, but here's the official legal wording from the state in regards to Highway 501:
Quote from: RCW 47.17.460
Beginning at a junction with state route number 5 at Vancouver, thence northerly by way of Lower River Road and an extension thereof to Ridgefield, thence easterly to a junction with state route number 5 in the vicinity south of La Center. That portion of state route number 501 from the northerly junction of N.W. Lower River Road to the Ridgefield city limits is designated "the Erwin O. Rieger Memorial Highway." The department may enter into an agreement with the Port of Vancouver, Clark county, or the United States Army Engineers, or any combination thereof, to obtain material dredged from the Columbia river and have it stockpiled at no expense to the state.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.tapatalk-cdn.com%2F15%2F07%2F19%2F380b1036d383c9987fb01db8ca06b997.jpg&hash=41ba266516e46fa2da61f3d8ab5cbde6f058ce19)
Not the clearest picture, but my apologies to Bickendan. Unfortunately, I was halfway back to I-5 before I realized I should have taken a picture of the back too, but it seems like a WSDOT install. (The fact that it's a unisign is a big tipoff.)
Because I'm stubborn (and because there's zero reference to it on WSDOT's website), I'm still not convinced it's a legit state highway (i.e. designated and/or maintained by the state).
But I'm also wrong about it being spectacularly unusual for WSDOT to sign a bannered route it doesn't otherwise recognize. I happened to catch a mention of a locally maintained 503 Business in Brush Prairie in another thread, with a link to a BGS at the northern end. And GSV shows a northbound reassurance shield, with a 96 WSDOT sticker on the back.
GSV of the aforementioned sticker (https://www.google.com/maps/@45.743805,-122.546707,3a,15y,154.66h,82.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1seTRqg4mtaWSlNGYIrjdXFg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)
So *shrug*