The freeway begins southwest Richland at a trumpet interchange with I-82 and US 12, located near Badger Mountain. The concurrent I-182 and US 12 travel northeast through Goose Gap in the Horse Heaven Hills and enters Richland, where it passes through housing subdivisions and a retail district surrounding the Queensgate Drive interchange. The freeway then crosses over the Yakima River and intersects SR 240, beginning a short concurrency along the southern outskirts of central Richland. SR 240 splits from the freeway at the following junction, a cloverstack interchange with George Washington Way, and travels southeast towards Kennewick. I-182 and US 12 continue across the Columbia River on the Interstate 182 Bridge, formally the Lee-Volpentest Bridges, which carry six freeway lanes and a section of the Sacagawea Heritage Trail on twin concrete spans. The freeway continues northeast into Franklin County and the city limits of Pasco.