Inspectors “found significant rot” and closed a small bridge on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail south of Duvall about halfway between NE 138th and 124th Streets. King County Parks immediately closed the structure — lovingly named Bridge 2178-15 — for safety reasons October 22, noting that “no detour is available.”
Just a few days after the closure, King County Parks has now announced the repair plan. Crew will begin work October 28, and repairs are expected to take about three weeks to complete. That would put reopening around November 18 if all goes according to schedule. There will be no detour during this time, the department said.
You can find updates for this and other King County Parks projects on their Backyard FunFinder map.
Detour options
In what is a frustrating pattern with King County Parks, the department will not be signing a detour let alone creating any sort of temporary space to help trail users get around the closure safely. This happens too often, and it is not acceptable to leave trail users completely on their own to navigate dangerous traffic conditions. King County needs to treat our regional trails as transportation routes, and that means developing a trail detour policy. The county would never close a road without at least signing a detour, so why should trails be treated any differently?
Options for getting around this trail are pretty much limited to using the shoulders on Carnation-Duvall Road NE. Maps show a private road that crosses the trail just north of the closure, but it has a fence at the main road so is likely not a good option. Instead, users will need to access the trail at NE 138th and 124th Streets. Unlike too many roads in the region with two hyphenated place names, this one at least has consistent shoulders on both sides. The trickiest part is likely the roundabout at NE 124th Street, a horrible double-lane design with no bike lanes or sidewalks. Roundabouts can be a tool for safer streets, but not if they’re designed with only cars in mind like this one. Note that users of the main road can continue “straight” in either lane, which may not be what you expect. Proceed with extreme caution.
From Google Maps.This is a great example of why King County Parks needs a better detour policy. With just a little work, like clearing out overgrowth and maybe adding some quick pavement to barely widen the sidewalk space on the northwest corner and the first hundred feet or so to the north, they could create a usable walking and biking connection between the roadway shoulders and the existing crosswalk to nowhere on the north side of the roundabout. This could also allow trail users to avoid the roundabout and instead use the crosswalks. Remember, not all trail users are riding bikes, and the existing space appears barely too skinny for chairs. Detour signage could also help trail users and drivers both understand where folks will be crossing. People will be traveling through here whether King County Parks creates a detour or not. I don’t understand why the department thinks saying, “No detour is available,” is an effective solution. There will be people who never read this notice and are surprised by the closure. They deserve guidance for getting around it at the very least.
More details from King County Parks:
The 2178-15 bridge – located near Duvall Park on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail – is closed due to safety concerns after a routine inspection found significant rot. No detour is available. […]
Earlier this week, King County Parks was notified that bridge 2178-15 along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail would need to be closed due to safety concerns […]. Parks anticipates beginning repairs on October 28. The repairs will take approximately 3 weeks and will not require any in-ground work. This portion of the Snoqualmie Valley Trail will be closed during these repairs.
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