King County Parks will show off the latest plans for what could easily become one of the most stunning segments of trail in the region: The Eastside Trail through Wilburton.
The open house is 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bellevue City Hall.
This segment will include the rehabbed Wilburton Trestle, a very cool old rail bridge that will provide trail users with towering views of downtown Bellevue and beyond.
But, of course, it’s not just the views that are exciting. The trestle and a planned NE 8th Street overpass will also make it much easier to bike through the area, providing routes that fly over wide streets near a I-405 interchanges. This segment also needs to include a connection to the I-90 Trail. It’s hard to overstate how much this segment of trail will improve bikeability in the immediate area and through the region.
The County has applied for a Federal BUILD grant to help build these bridge structures as well as a trail bridge in Totem Lake.
Sections of the Eastside Trail are already open as interim hardpack gravel trails through Kirkland, north Bellevue and Renton. If all the pieces come together perfectly, the trail could be open by 2021. But, of course, there are still a lot of “ifs.”
More details from King County Parks:
Come view the latest conceptual design plans for the Wilburton segment of the Eastside Rail Corridor on Tuesday, October 9 at Bellevue City Hall. We’ll be gathering feedback about this section of the trail, which runs from I-90 north through Bellevue to 108th Avenue NE near Kirkland.
Wilburton Segment Open House
Tuesday, Oct. 9
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Bellevue City Hall
450 110th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98004Can’t attend the meeting? We’ll have an online open house from Oct. 9 to Oct. 23, where you can view the plans and provide input.
See you there!
We’re getting excited to share the latest conceptual design plans for Wilburton segment of the Eastside Rail Corridor TOMORROW! 🛤➡️🚴♀️ Learn more: https://t.co/LFoHwPHRgy pic.twitter.com/R7i9qhiiy9
— King County Parks (@kingcountyparks) October 8, 2018
Comments
3 responses to “Tuesday: Open house for stunning Eastside Trail Wilburton segment”
Given that the ERC trestle passes over the I-90 trail with a vertical gap of at least 100 feet, it will be interesting to see how they connect the two.
Also important, further north, is a connection to the 520 trail at Northup way – this needs a much smaller ramp. In general, anytime a street crossing over or under the trail, there needs to be some sort of ramp for people to connect between the trail and the street.
Here is what I got from King County when I asked: “In the short term the connection will most likely be along 118th, with street improvements. In the long term we hope to construct a new bridge connecting the ERC to the I-90 trail east of 118th.”
https://twitter.com/iheartkcparks/status/1016797445706010624
In some sense that’s good news: we’re going to need a connection between 118th and the ERC for connections to the I-90 trail, and if 118th is the interim ERC route that’s some assurance they won’t be neglected.