Home > Interstate 82

1 Length

142.57 miles

• Washington - 132.57 miles
• Oregon - 10 miles

2 Major Cities Along the Route

• Yakima, Washington

3 Intersections with other Interstates

• Interstate 90 in Ellensburg, Washington
• Interstate 84 in Hermiston, Oregon

4 Spur Routes

• Richland, Washington - I-182

5 Notes

I-82 serves two major purposes:

• Long haul and long trip: A link between Seattle, Washington and inland western cities such Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Denver, Colorado
• Short-trip: Local connector between cities along the Yakima RiverThe Yakima River is a tributary of the Columbia River in eastern Washington state. The headwaters are located in the Cascade Range, northwest of Cle Elum, Washington flowing through that town, past the city of Yakima, Washington, and continuing southwest. The north-western part of the Lower Yakima Valley is also served by U.S. Highway 97United States Highway 97 is a major north-south United States highway in the western United States. It begins at a junction with Interstate 5 at Weed, California, and travels north to the Canadian Border at Osoyoos, becoming B. Highway 97 upon entering Ca, but commuter traffic between Ellensburg and Yakima, Yakima and the Lower Valley Cities and the Tri-Cities accounts for the vast majority of the actual traffic it carries.

On I-82, exits 88 and 93 are the only interstate exits in the state of Washington still lit with mercury vapor streetlights. The closest possible exception is on I-5, at the 320th St. S. exit in Federal Way, where at the intersection of the northbound offramp and 320th St. there is one lone mercury vapor light. It is not actually on the freeway, though, only on the offramp.

Mercury vapor lights cast a cold, blue light. Most of the Washington interstate system has high pressure sodium lighting, the common yellow streetlight. There are a few areas that have metal halide (clean, white light) as well, but those are growing in number while the use of mercury is shrinking. I-5 north of the Ship Canal Bridge has metal halide. State route 520 just east of 405 has some mercury lighting left over, as does the Valley Freeway (167) north of the SuperMall. Basically everywhere else, the lighting is sodium.

On I-90, exit 93, Elk Heights Road, is the only unlit interchange. There are no unlit interchanges on 5, 405, 705 or 182. 82 has at lest one unlit exit, the "Military Training Area" just south of Ellensburg.