The Snoqualmie Valley Trail will be closed for about a month starting January 14 as King County makes repairs to the former railroad bridge over Griffin Creek (about 2.5 miles south of Carnation).

Details from King County Parks:

Extensive repairs to an old timber beam bridge that carries King County’s Snoqualmie Valley Trail over Griffin Creek will require a month-long closure beginning in mid-January.

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Significant repairs have already been completed to the bridge, which is located in the Snoqualmie Valley between Carnation and Snoqualmie, including replacing old wooden timbers that were rotted.

A County work crew will install additional new wooden timbers that support the bridge structure beginning Monday, Jan. 14. The repairs are expected to take approximately one month.

During the upcoming closure, the trail will be closed to all access from the 11th Street Northeast access point south to the southern end of the bridge abutment at Northeast 8th Street.

At more than 31 miles in length, the Snoqualmie Valley Trail is the longest trail in King County’s 175-mile regional trail system. The trail winds through the largely rural Snoqualmie River Valley, passing working farms and forests, as well as the cities of Duvall, Carnation, Snoqualmie and North Bend.

The trail connects with the cross-state John Wayne Pioneer Trail at its southern end and offers access to such notable destinations as Tolt-MacDonald Park, Meadowbrook Farm and the Three Forks Natural Area.

The County worked on this section of trail in 2012, but workers discovered more rotten wood than they had expected. This should be the last of the closures. From an October press release:

Crews repairing a portion of the Griffin Creek Bridge along King County Parks’ Snoqualmie Valley Trail have discovered more rotten beams that must be replaced, and the additional work will require another closure of the trail later this fall.

The trail will reopen on Wednesday, Oct. 24, but will have to be closed later in December for approximately three weeks when additional repairs can be made.

Extensive repairs have already been made to the old Griffin Creek bridge, which has been closed since mid August from the 11th Street Northeast access point to the southern end of the bridge abutment at Northeast 8th Street. Crews have been replacing old wooden timbers that support the Snoqualmie Valley Trail across Griffin Creek.

While the initial scope of work has been completed to the bridge spans south of the creek, subsequent inspections revealed more rotting timber bridge spans north of the creek.