This bill amends several existing statutes governing the state highway system (RCW 36.75.090, 47.01.425, 47.17.001, 47.24.010, and 47.28.010) and makes procedural and substantive changes to how portions of the state highway system are transferred, abandoned, or determined. It requires the Washington State Department of Transportation to enter into an agreement with a city or county before abandoning any portion of a state highway that exceeds two miles in length or includes a bridge; if no agreement is reached the department must forward the proposed abandonment to the legislature under RCW 47.17.001. The bill also amends the commission’s role to receive petitions for jurisdictional transfers and for abandonments over two miles, to use specified criteria in RCW 47.17.001, to adopt implementing rules (including a prerequest conference), and to send an annual report by November 15 to the senate and house transportation committees with evaluations, identified costs/risks/impacts to continuity and connectivity, and recommendations. The amendment to RCW 47.17.001 restates and specifies criteria and guidelines for legislative consideration of additions, deletions, or other changes to the state highway system, including numeric thresholds (for example, 12 or more hours daily for border crossings, 300,000 tons annually for freight access, and a population threshold of 1,000). It adds a new requirement that the legislature must, by statute, make a final determination about the status of any existing state highway segment that exceeds two miles or includes a bridge when the department and the affected city or county cannot agree. The bill also makes the department’s annual identification and certification of city streets (and related bridges/wharves) that form part of state highways subject to RCW 36.75.090(2), with identification actions required between July 1 and July 15 and corresponding certifications to be made between July 1 and July 15 following the department’s determination. A provision appears to authorize construction of bypass sections as part of state highways through or around incorporated cities or towns, but the responsible entity is not identified in the available text. This legislation modifies existing law (procedural and jurisdictional changes), adds reporting and rulemaking requirements, establishes numeric criteria to guide transfers and abandonments, and creates a statutory role for the legislature to make final determinations in certain contested abandonments. Affected entities include the state Department of Transportation, the commission, counties, incorporated cities and towns, and the Washington State Legislature. The act takes effect July 1, 2026. The record is incomplete in places: the amendment to RCW 47.28.010 is cut off, the statutory identity of "the commission" is not provided in the extracted text, the full text of RCW 36.75.090(2) as referenced is not included, and the entity empowered to construct bypass sections is truncated and unidentified.

If enacted, the bill makes longer state highway segments (those over two miles or that include bridges) harder for the Department of Transportation to abandon or shift without local agreement and possible legislative action. WSDOT must try to reach an agreement with the affected city or county first; if they cannot agree, the proposed abandonment or transfer goes to the Legislature for a final statutory decision based on newly specified criteria. The transportation commission will handle petitions for transfers and abandonments under those rules, must hold prerequest conferences, adopt implementing rules, and send an annual report by November 15 identifying evaluations, costs, risks, connectivity impacts, and recommendations. The department also must do yearly street identifications and certifications in cities and towns between July 1 and July 15. The act takes effect July 1, 2026. The most affected parties are WSDOT (more negotiation, scheduling and reporting work and potential delays in shedding maintenance responsibility), local cities and counties (greater leverage and a clearer path to force legislative review but more involvement in negotiations and potential political outcomes), and the commission (new rulemaking and reporting duties). The new numeric thresholds and criteria will likely change which rural or urban routes qualify for state system status, affecting which agencies pay for upkeep, but some implementation details are missing in the extracted text (for example a truncated provision about who is empowered to build bypasses and portions of RCW 47.28.010), so the exact effects in some situations remain unclear.