Kirkland leaders gathered with more than 200 of its residents on Sunday to celebrate the Cross Kirkland Corridor’s continuing transformation.
The celebration culminated with a walk alongside the landscape architects, who are drafting the corridor’s master plan. Nearly 100 participants completed the entire 5.75-mile route. Most did so in hiking boots. However, some participants journeyed along the corridor on bikes, on shoulders and in strollers.
“I talked to a lot of people out there,” said resident Lisa McConnell. “It was interesting to hear a shift: They’re coming up with all sorts of ideas for it. I think they are starting to see the corridor as a place to go, not just as a place to get you there.”
Crews finished removing the railroad and grading the remaining ballast Oct. 21, creating a 5.75-mile country road-like surface. That surface will remain until crews begin work on the interim trail early next year. City engineers expect the interim trail to be complete as early as this summer.
When it’s done, Kirkland will have a 5.75-mile-long gravel trail — with a surface similar to that of the East Lake Sammamish interim trail — connecting neighborhoods, businesses centers, schools, business centers and parks.
In the meantime, the community continues to plan the bike, pedestrian and transit facilities that will eventually define the Cross Kirkland Corridor.
“The city of Kirkland intends to use that to create a world class regional trail, as well as a world class transit connection that will link us from Totem Lake to Bellevue and its light rail over to the city of Seattle and even on down to the city of Renton,” says Kirkland City Manager Kurt Triplett. “So this will be all about connecting Kirkland in so many ways. For jobs, for recreation, for fitness and a way of linking our neighborhoods we haven’t been able to do before.”
The corridor has been on the minds of Kirkland residents since at least 1977, when community leaders asked Burlington Northern Santa Fe to allow a path to run alongside the railroad on the 100-foot-wide corridor. Burlington Northern Santa Fe rejected the idea. It re-emerged with gusto early in 2012, however, when the city of Kirkland purchased the corridor from 108th Avenue Northeast near the South Kirkland Park and Ride to 132nd Avenue Northeast, in Totem Lake.
Visit www.kirklandwa.gov/CrossKirklandCorridor for more information.
