Washington State Route 28

[Amaury]

According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Route_28), Washington State Route 28 has a spur route in East Wenatchee. I'm trying to figure out which one is the spur route. Is the spur route only the eastbound lanes, the one-way roadway closest to the Columbia River? It's certainly not signed, in any case.

https://goo.gl/maps/Avoyq3kDyTswvWKT9

[FrCorySticha]

This diagram footnoted in the Wiki article seems to show the route from the split south of Wenatchee to the roundabout as the spur, calling it "SR 28 SP" instead of "SR 28". So, not the route along the river, though it doesn't appear to be signed as such in the field.

[The Ghostbuster]

I tried clicking on the link and got the "Hmmm... can't reach this page" message. Is there another way to access the page?

[Amaury]

Same.

There are other spur routes that aren't signed, of course, such as the spur routes for US Route 730 and Washington State Route 14, but there it's clearer where the spur routes are, whether you're driving them yourself or looking at them on Google Maps. In the case of the latter, US Route 97 northbound actually gets a reassurance shield too early while still on the spur of Washington State Route 14 heading eastbound: https://goo.gl/maps/UZBJS6nc4t1C6MHj6 What's confusing me on Washington State Route 28 is that its spur route connects back to the main highway, which is unusual. That goes very much against the definition of a spur route, at least for non-Interstate highways: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_route#/media/File:Spur_route_diagram.svg For interstates, I know it's more common for some of them to connect back to the main highway, such as Interstate 405, but I've never seen non-Interstate highway spurs connect back to the main highway.

[Bruce]

The interchange diagram shows the eastern lanes that lead into SR 285 are labeled as SR 28 Spur. The eastbound thru lanes on the river are the mainline and there's a "couplet" that connects the westbound thru traffic from the spur to the mainline again.

[Amaury]

Thank you. So, I had it backward in my OP. The one-way roadway by the Columbia River for eastbound is the main highway. So, despite what the diagram shows, there's technically no spur for westbound traffic, unless I'm missing something.

[pderocco]

Instead of calling it a "spur" they should have called it a "bypass". Even though it's only for one direction, that's really what it is: a way of diverting through-traffic around a couple of busy intersections.

[Bruce]

It isn't a spur or bypass at all, but rather part of a messy interchange. The spur and couplet designations are for internal use because each ramp needs its own name.

[FrCorySticha]

I tried clicking on the link and got the "Hmmm... can't reach this page" message. Is there another way to access the page?

Oops, sorry. I messed up the link. The diagram Bruce linked to is the same I tried to link.

[Amaury]

I just noticed today when I went through there that, for some reason, the mileposts randomly reset and start over at milepost 1 just past the intersection with Riverview Drive/3rd Street Southeast, where the "split" eastbound lanes rejoin the "actual" highway: https://goo.gl/maps/yYj2stCH78ijnrzt8

SR 28 begins at the junction with US 2, and between there and where the eastbound "split" rejoins, it's about 5.5 miles, and looking at the previous mileposts, the next one should be milepost 5, but it's not.

The logical milepost 1 is back here at 29th Street Northwest: https://goo.gl/maps/Wn2wodBdZPR2H1f2A
Milepost 2: https://goo.gl/maps/7sK7Wf7immRf5rXG6
Milepost 3: https://goo.gl/maps/51XugXcMAdpMd3aH8
Milepost 4, where the eastbound lanes are right next to the westbound lanes: https://goo.gl/maps/4erufgXFxKozqNbK8

Next should be milepost 5, but it's actually the aforementioned milepost 1 because of the random reset. So, mileposts 1—4 are duplicated further down the highway. Unless I'm missing something explaining why, this is the first case of a highway having duplicate mileposts, since mileposts only reset at state lines, at least here. A realignment caused US 2's mileposts to go from 120 to 128 and therefore skip mileposts 121—127, but I don't think a realignment would cause duplicate mileposts.

I also just realized that if you're going eastbound, you can't go straight at the roundabout. The only way to drive this part of SR 28 eastbound (https://goo.gl/maps/i9uGCpdbW2nbskjg8) is if you're coming from SR 285 or via some local roads just past the southern terminus of SR 285, though coming from SR 285, you also have the option of taking the eastbound SR 28 lanes right by the river via an exit ramp. There's also access to the westbound lanes that way via another exit ramp, but it's mostly just a ramp there, and you don't actually drive right next to the river like eastbound.

So, basically you have two physical separate roadways that are both SR 28 eastbound and westbound, though the latter closer to the river is mostly a ramp, all of which makes no sense. What a mess! That would be like saying SR 281 Spur, a separate roadway, is also just SR 281. Thankfully, there it's organized. One is SR 281 and one is SR 281 Spur since they're two separate roadways. Yes, they have the same number, but there's a distinguishing feature there: the spur. Since the designations of "spur" and "couplet" are just for internal uses for the ramps, technically there's only SR 28. There are no spur or alternate routes. "Messy interchange" is understatement! Looking at Google Maps, even before the roundabout, that interchange was messy, as there was still no way to go straight there for eastbound, for example: https://goo.gl/maps/51fEJDYzgc7BC9kc9

[Bruce]

That milepost may be left over from when US 2 ran through Wenatchee and thus SR 28 ended at the east end of the Senator George Sellar Bridge. The northern bridge didn't open until 1975.

[Amaury]

Repeated milepost 2: https://goo.gl/maps/nBXkdcUBkProPVUQ6
Repeated milepost 3: https://goo.gl/maps/p47jH5pfaUcLpvkG9
Repeated milepost 4: https://goo.gl/maps/Ebbpi1KCLRKPnDG26

And finally, an original, milepost 5: https://goo.gl/maps/mePE1VpT4qGpPiYw9

I note that Wikipedia says the route runs for 135.25 miles. So, skipping ahead to the milepost nearest to the route's eastern terminus, we have milepost 130: https://goo.gl/maps/kekt3ZFsDzjbczdd8

I can't find a milepost 131 anywhere, but from milepost 130 to the junction with US 2, it's about a mile, so mile 131 would be roughly at the eastern terminus of SR 28. That's four miles short, so I guess they just never updated the milage. If you change the duplicate mile 1 to mile 5 and add 4 to each subsequent mile, such as duplicate mile 2 becoming mile 6, obviously, there's the four-mile shortage solved. It's weird that they didn't notice the duplication, or maybe it was intentional? I can understand skipping numbers, like with the realignment of US 2 causing 120 -> 128 or routes like SR 530 starting at mile 17, as you've mentioned before, but duplication? Basically, miles 1—4 on SR 28's extension are correct, but they didn't update milage on the original alignment.

It just doesn't look right, but I guess it's just another little quirk that's interesting to discuss now, like the I-82 being east-west debate.

[Amaury]

Interesting.

If you go to https://wsdot.com/Travel/Real-time/Map/ and zoom in on the area it shows that mile 5 is right there where the roads rejoin each other, though there's no milepost actually installed. And that duplicate mile 1 is just a few feet up. Similarly, it shows mile 131, as I thought above, being at the eastern terminus, there's just no milepost for it installed in the ground. It indicates the lanes farther away from the river as couplet and spur, though you already explained that's for internal uses since the ramps need a name. It also shows SR 28 between US 2 and SR 285 as SR 28B if you look at one of the cameras. Mileposts 1—4 in that section also have a B next to them. (The one on milepost 2 fell off.) It was explained to me here that B indicates realignment or extension: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=32420.0

And after looking at it further, via street view, SR 27 does the same thing and starts over where its original southern terminus was.

EDIT: There is one difference with SR 27. The extension portion of the highway has no mileposts installed out there at all that I can see.

[jay8g]

Based on the official state highway log (page 699), the SR 28 mainline goes from 0.00B to 4.84B before resetting to "real" milepost 0.87. The spur and couplet are even stranger, both counting up from milepost 4.25 for no obvious reason. (According to the interchange diagram, they both begin at the same point, which is the start point - MP 0 - for SR 285, and count up in opposite directions.) Most likely, the milepost 5 on the map is actually milepost 5 of the spur route.