across the Yakima River Delta south of I-182, carried a daily average of 76,000 vehicles in 2016; the least busiest section of the highway, near its intersection with SR 24, carried only 2,600 vehicles. The Bypass Highway section of SR 240 in Richland is designated as part of the National Highway System, a network of roads identified as important to the national economy, defense, and mobility. The corridor, along with the freeway section from Richland to Kennewick, was also designated as a Highway of Statewide Significance by the Washington State Legislature. History The highway between Richland and Kennewick was originally part of the first federal wagon road to be constructed in the Pacific Northwest, laid in 1853 between Fort Walla Walla and the Puget Sound region via Naches Pass. The wagon road is commemorated with a historic marker in Columbia Park, just north of the Edison Street interchange on SR 240. Local Native American tribes also used a trail following the route of the Hanford Highway to reach points west of Rattlesnake Mountain, including Yakima. By the early 1910s, several unpaved roads connected Richland to the Cold Creek Valley and Kennewick via a more westerly crossing of the Yakima River Delta on a bridge built by the Benton County government in 1906. The Richland–Kennewick section was incorporated into the Inland Empire Highway, a paved cross-state route created by the legislature in 1913. The Yakima Valley section of the Inland Empire Highway, later numbered as State Road 3 and Primary State Highway 3, was incorporated into the national highway system in 1926 as part of US 410 between Yakima and Pasco. The Columbia Trail portion of US 410 was paved in concrete by the Benton County government in 1932, constituting the region's first paved highway. The road along Cold Creek was closed in November 1943 as part of the establishment of a federal weapons development facility at the Hanford Site during World War II. To serve the new facility and evacuate residents in the event of an emergency, a four-lane highway bypassing Richland to the west was constructed by the county government in July 1948, connecting to US 410 with a new bridge over the Yakima River. The four-lane bridge was built by the Atomic Energy Commission and opened in 1951, replacing a bailey bridge that had been in use since 1948. The remaining stretch of US 410 was moved to