King County Parks is ready to celebrate the opening of the newly-paved East Lake Sammamish Trail between the lake and Issaquah.
Formerly covered by crushed rock, the section is just the second segment in a series of planned paving projects that will one day connect Redmond to Issaquah with a fully accessible trail.
From King County Parks:
Join us for a celebration on the trail!
Wednesday, June 12
11 a.m.
East Lake Sammamish Trail terminus
at Gilman Boulevard in IssaquahKing County is delighted to announce another milestone toward completing the East Lake Sammamish Master Plan Trail.
Join us as we cut the ribbon and re-open the newly developed trail segment, a 2.2-mile-long section from SE 43rd Way
to Gilman Boulevard.The trail has gone from a crushed rock surface to a 12-foot-wide paved trail with 2-foot soft-surface shoulders on each side, making it more accessible to bicyclists, skaters and trail visitors of all ages and abilities. We’ve also improved safety by enhancing intersection and road crossing treatments, among other design improvements. The ELST follows an historic railroad route along the eastern shore of Lake Sammamish and connects the cities of Redmond, Sammamish and Issaquah.
Funding for this project was provided by the 2008-2013, voter-approved Open Space and Trails Levy, the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program, and the Federal Highway Administration.
Map of the recently-completed segment:
View E Lake Sammamish in a larger map
Comments
9 responses to “From gravel to pavement: East Lake Sammamish Trail reopening celebration”
I would love if someday our region could complete the loop of Elliott bay -> Ship Canal -> Burke-Gilman -> Sammamish River -> East Lake Sammamish -> I90 trails, entirely via separated, paved multi-use paths. There are still a few missing links in there, but this project brings us one step closer!
About time. Well I wonder if the construction crews had to fight with the homeowners again or have they realized that the trail isn’t the end of the world.
It looks like they dodged the hard stuff, doing the stretch by the park first, before braving the shotguns and dobermens in the backyards.
Ah, so that explains all the trail closed signs when I rode from Issaquah to Redmond for the first time last week. Good project, but detour signage would’ve helped put me at ease that I wasn’t going to be riding in the road or on the sidewalk the whole way to Redmond.
There really isn’t any alternative other than Lake Sammamish Parkway. I suppose you could take Issaquah-Pine Lake Road and find your way back down to Lake Sammamish Parkway once in Sammamish, or just go around the lake on the west side, but it’s not like that’s going to be much better if at all.
I meant something like, “Trail closed for 1 mile, use road or sidewalk”. It was just a bit disconcerting to not know what was going on.
There were a few signs explaining the project in various places, though probably not the best ones. I’m not sure Lake Sammamish Parkway has much of any sidewalks north of 56th.
Hey, Tom, this is approaching fast. You may want to write up a blog story about it:
http://your.kingcounty.gov/dnrp/library/parks-and-recreation/documents/cip/ELST_North%20Samm_Construction%20Activities.pdf
Construction is supposed to start the 20th of the month (Febrary, 2014)
Thanks! I’ll get an update and see if it’s still on schedule.