Years after the final train rolled down the rails, a Federal agency has approved a nearly 12-mile section of abandoned railroad for use as a trail extending the reach of Snohomish County’s iconic Centennial Trail all the way to the King County line. Snohomish County has announced that they will resume planning work for the trail in 2025 with the vision of connecting it to King County’s in-development Eastrail and, therefore, the Sammamish River and Burke-Gilman Trails.
Once complete, the Centennial Trail would span the entire length of Snohomish County. Skagit County also owns sections of the same rail line with the potential to develop it further north. In Arlington, the Centennial Trail connects to the Whitehorse Trail, a rail-trail leading to Darrington and the beautiful Mountain Loop Highway (note that the section near Arlington is currently closed due to significant slide and washout issues, though the County is working on it and hopes for construction permits soon). Down south, the City of Woodinville has already been removing the rails from their two-mile stretch connecting from the county line and planned Centennial Trail South terminus to the Sammamish River Trail near NE 175th Street.
“As of August 2024, Snohomish County concluded abandonment and railbanking of the rail line from the City of Snohomish to the King County line,” Snohomish County Parks wrote in a project update last week. “With this milestone, the County will resume trail planning in 2025 for the phased development of the trail over the next decade.” They anticipate a phased build-out because “the proposed alignment traverses areas with steep cross slopes, bridges, trestles, sloughs, and other natural features which offer a beautiful trail experience but complicated construction.” The county estimates the cost to fully build out and pave the 12-mile trail section to be $100 million, according to the Snohomish County Tribune. They currently have $2 million budgeted for design work.
King County and municipalities like Kirkland have sped up the opening of their trail sections by building them first as mostly lower-budget gravel trails that use as much of the existing rail infrastructure as possible. The ultimate plan is to fully pave the trail, but that work will take a long time and is significantly more expensive. Perhaps Snohomish County could look into a similar strategy if funding for a paved trail is not found in the near-term.
Next we just need King County and the City of Renton to start work on connecting the Eastrail to the Green River, Interurban and Cedar River Trails in order to create a fully separated bike route from Skagit County to Pierce County.
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