It is getting paved! Someday we will be able to ride from Renton to Woodinville on a paved bike We have been able to ride this southern section of the trail for about 3 years but it has been the packed gravel. Many bikers still ride on Lake Washington Blvd but I prefer the easy grade of the old rail line even though it wasn’t paved. Some of this section runs next to 405 which is going to be expanded for adding bus lanes so the state is going to pay to relocate the existing trail to the old railroad route.
They are paving this in 2 different sections this year and one section is already done. It always surprises me that planning and funding issues take years and then construction can move fairly fast. The North section is already paved.
The connection at the North end is going to need a bridge over 118th but for now just connects with 118th. It does have bike lanes and isn’t terrible to ride but it can sometimes be tough to cross. This sign at the North explains that the bridge is currently unfunded…
The section that the have paved looks awesome. Very wide and even has shoulders to walk or run if you don’t want to be on the pavement.
Right now, the South end is closed while they work on fixing up some of the bridges and getting some asphalt down.
Near the Seahawks practice facility, they have made a detour and closed half of the road to allow a makeshift bike trail. I didn’t expect this. These barriers are awesome and should be used more often when construction is happening and bikes are sent to “join traffic”.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they are going to pave South of here to Renton anytime soon. I can’t see that they have funding and I don’t think they can get the state to pay for this part because it isn’t affecting the 405 construction. Yet another win in a great new project but another delay in getting the whole thing finished. It also doesn’t connect to Coulon park and I don’t know if that will ever happen. I wrote about that here. The long term plan for the whole trail is also equally frustrating. There are still red sections in the map that they don’t have funding or a timeline. There are ways to bike around these sections but the rail grade is going to be so much easier to ride. Hills and traffic are problems in Bellevue and this completed trail should fix all of that. The dream of finishing this by 2025 as Dow Constantine announced in 2019 is not going to be realized.
