Washington State Route 291


State Route 291 is a long state highway located in Spokane and Stevens counties in the U.S. state of Washington. The highway begins at an intersection with concurrent highways U.S. Route 2 and US 395 and travels northwest to an intersection with SR 231.

Route description

SR 291 begins at an intersection with US 2 / US 395, named North Division Street, and West Francis Avenue in the Town and Country neighborhood of Spokane. The highway travels west along West Francis Avenue through western Spokane, before turning northwest along North Nine Mile Road near Balboa. The highway begins to parallel the Spokane River as it passes a golf course near the community of Nine Mile Falls. The highway continues northwest, entering Stevens County from Spokane County, just east of the Nine Mile Falls Dam, before climbing and shifting further north of the river to accommodate a housing development on the banks of the river. Entering the community of Tumtum the highway turns southwest, snaking around Long Lake, formed by the converging of the Spokane River and the Little Spokane River before turning west and terminating at SR 231.
Every year the Washington State Department of Transportation conducts a series of surveys on its highways in the state to measure traffic volume. This is expressed in terms of average annual daily traffic, which is a measure of traffic volume for any average day of the year. In 2009, WSDOT calculated that as few as 360 cars traveled through the intersection with Corkscrew Canyon Road near the northern terminus, and as many as 30,000 cars passed through the intersection with Ash Street in downtown Spokane.

History

Before the 1964 state highway renumbering, the portion of SR 291 between Spokane and the Stevens County line was designated Secondary State Highway 3S.

Major intersections