On Thursday, July 25, 2024, we drove Washington State Route 546 with a long, unplanned break in the middle.
A state highway to be known as state route number 546 is established as follows:Beginning at a junction with state route number 539 approximately 2.7 miles south of the international boundary, thence easterly by way of Van Buren to a junction with state route number 9.
"Approximately 2.7 miles south from the international boundary" is rather an unusual description. If the code were written like most routes, it would say "in the vicinity north of Lynden", which is where we have this junction with SR 539.
Farms, farms, apartments, farms. The south side of the road is the city of Lynden and the north side is forever rural. Roundabouts at the edge of suburbia. At Northwoods Road, we're about halfway through, so we have the photo above. The road ahead, however, is closed.
The flagger says the road will be open "later this afternoon" but won't be more specific. This project wasn't on the list that WSDOT published at the beginning of the summer, but was added in early July unbeknownst to me. Apparently the fish passage work they did in 2022 needed to be fixed, so they closed a mile of the highway for about a week. The schedule online said it wouldn't be open until the following day at 5 a.m. After a walk around Lynden and a meal, we headed back to the closure. Another construction worker told Isabelle that they'd be done by 5 p.m. and they should have been done by 2. Only an hour and a half to wait, which was far better than closed all night. I was thinking we'd have to come back on a later trip to finish it. We sat at the Thirsty Badger and waited. At 4 p.m. the workers started loading the orange barrels onto a truck. At 4:15 we were on our way. More apartment construction on the right, then back to farmland. Highway 546 quietly ends at this junction with SR 9, where going straight is north on 9.
A bit of a crisis, but nothing a little patience couldn't solve.
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