Here’s a look at some work on major trails in the region next week you should be aware of.
First up, King County will repave sections of the Sammamish River Trail near 60 Acres Park in Redmond. Details from King County Parks:
A King County Parks crew will repair and repave portions of a one-mile stretch of the Sammamish River Trail near Redmond next week, leading to minor delays for trail users.
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The work is scheduled to take place from Monday, June 16 through Thursday, June 19 along a one-mile-long stretch of the trail near 60 Acres Park.
There will be no closures or detours associated with this work, as trail users will be escorted around the work. All cyclists will be asked to dismount and walk bicycles through the work zone.
The Sammamish River Trail is one of King County Parks’ most-popular trails. At 10.9 miles in length, the trail connects the Burke-Gilman Trail to King County’s Marymoor Park in Redmond, and is popular with walkers, runners and bicyclists, including many commuters.
UPDATE: I just received a notice of a second SRT detour later this month, June 23-27: “City of Redmond is constructing a new water quality facility and requires a temporary detour of the Sammamish River Trail between NE Redmond Way and Leary Way NE. Trail users will be routed onto the Redmond Central Connector Trail to safely bypass the construction zone. See the City of Redmond project page for more information.”
UW Station and Burke-Gilman Trail detours
The headaches just north of the Montlake Bridge continue with more detour changes. By this time, the thousands of people who bike through the area daily are no doubt used to getting lost and traversing extremely skinny pathways and sidewalks. Well, next week will be no different as yet another key sidewalk is closed.
The best route options through the area may be some rather unofficial routes, which is definitely not among best practices for a major bike route disruption like this one. Heading northbound, the Husky Stadium parking lots are one option, as is the somewhat signed East Campus bike route, which requires some off-road biking (but is a lot of fun if you can follow it).
Details from Sound Transit:
The eastern sidewalk on Montlake Boulevard NE, between the Montlake Bridge and NE Pacific Street, will re-open in early June. This section of sidewalk was closed for restoration.
Sidewalk restoration work will then move to the north. Starting in mid-June, the eastern sidewalk on Montlake Blvd NE, between NE Pacific Street and NE Pacific Place, will be closed. The sidewalk will remain closed until early September.
Pedestrians and bicyclists on the east side of Montlake Boulevard will detour to the west sidewalk of Montlake Boulevard. Those heading northbound will detour at NE Pacific Street and those heading southbound will detour at NE Pacific Place.
Signage and flaggers will help direct pedestrians and bicyclists around the work.
Crosswalks will remain open at NE Pacific Street and NE Pacific Place.
Meanwhile, the Burke-Gilman Trail detour through UW campus has been marked using sharrows inside green boxes. These certainly help people avoid getting lost, but there are many tight turns and crowded shared spaces. So go slow, be patient and keep remembering that the trail will be totally awesome when they finish the work.
As a reminder, here is the current Burke-Gilman detour map:
Comments
7 responses to “Trail updates: Sammamish River Trail repaving + More UW Station detour changes”
The UW bike detour is fatuous. There just needs to be a short detour around the section of the Burke Gilman that is blocked by the UW Station construction and a short detour on the sidewalk of NE Pacific Street around the Seattle City Light construction to the west.
Be aware that when you cross 15th Ave going eastward on 40th Str the signs tell you to follow the pedestrian signals. However, all pedestrians will have green light and walk at the same time! I think this pretty dangerous when you don’t know about it!
The 15th and 40th intersection is a total mess. Dense pedestrian traffic do not permit riders into the narrow curb cuts in order to follow the recommended detour going east. Most riders are riding up the hill instead, but the chaos of the all-way pedestrian crossing is going to cause accidents.
Another area of problems is the terrible road condition in the detour route next to the W10 parking lot. There are potholes there that are going to put riders on the ground. It’s just a matter of time.
How about a regular report of accidents on the detour from the UW and Sound Transit?
Agreed- I wrote to the project coordinators about those road conditions. That road has been used as a detour several times now over the past year but it’s terribly bumpy and unsafe.
Does anyone know about that little bit of ROW west of the Sammamish River? It looks like it runs all the way from NE 116th St to the Marymoor Connector Trail and could be a useful alternate if completed.
bummer, the SRT will probably be little better than before as it looks like they are chopping out 1-2ft sections which will leave it with many joints.
Is this in prep for a total repave of the Redmond section? Or am I dreaming?
That detour around UW is unusable and dangerous for road bikes. Best option (unbelievably) is Montlake to Pacific westbound. Eastbound, I’d be tempted to use Brooklyn to Ravenna.