The highway was closed during the Great Coastal Gale of 2007 after a culvert was damaged and its eastern terminus was re-constructed in 2009 to serve increasing volumes of traffic.

SR 96 begins as 128th Street at a diamond interchange with I-5 in Paine Field-Lake Stickney, located in suburban Snohomish County south of Everett.

[2] Seattle Hill Road was bypassed to the south by Cathcart Way in 2004, planned by the county government since 1978 to redirect traffic on the two-lane SR 96.

[13][14] During the Great Coastal Gale in December 2007, Seattle Hill Road was washed out by a damaged culvert and subsequently closed until late January as WSDOT crews repaired the highway.

[17] A section of SR 96 near McCollum Park in northwestern Mill Creek was built over landfill that later settled, creating an uneven road surface.