New trail links south end of Lake Washington

Published 11:09 am Thursday, July 14, 2011

Mel Roberts has been a serious bike rider for 10 years. He puts bike riders into two categories: those that use trails and sidewalks with pedestrians and those that use the streets and bike lanes. The former he said are supported well by a new trail the city has constructed along Logan Avenue North.

“Any step that Renton makes is an improvement,” said Roberts, who is also chairman of the Kent Bicycle Advisory Board.

The second phase of the trail is now open ultimately connecting more than 52 miles of trail for pedestrians and bicyclists. This new trail is 12 feet wide and stretches nearly 2,100 feet connecting the Cedar River Trail to the Lake Washington Trail along Logan Avenue.

Although the trail around Lake Washington varies between street bike lanes and trail, this portion within the city of Renton supports the slower less experienced riders, Roberts said.

He will use a trail as a safer option too for travel over this route, he said.

The need for a trail that makes it possible to traverse around Lake Washington, especially the south end, goes back many years. It took various departments within the City of Renton such as the Public Works Department, the Community Service Department’s Parks Division and the Economic Development Department working with the Boeing Company to make the new trail happen.

“The thinking of this whole effort was, is there a way we could connect the south end of Lake Washington to the rest of the Lake Washington trail and to the Cedar River,” said Preeti Shridhar, communications director for the city.

With the Landing’s opening in 2007 came the establishment of Logan Avenue, which gave access from Boeing to downtown by way of the Landing. The Boeing  Company provided the city with an easement on part of their land. That became this trail from Northeast Sixth Street, which is where the Cedar River Trail ends all the way along Logan Avenue to meet up with Lake Washington towards Gene Coulon Park.

The new trail includes a public art installation called “Wings and Wheels,” incorporating research by the Renton Municipal Airport and the Renton History Museum.

Judith and Daniel Caldwell are the artists responsible for the embedded artwork in the trail that encourages trail users to look up and informs them of the planes that have flown out of the airport also known as Clayton Scott Field.

“Our artwork in the shared bicycle-pedestrian trail bears witness to the prominent role of the Renton Municipal Airport and the Renton Boeing plant in the life of

the community” said Judith Caldwell in a release. “The 72 bronze castings in the trail celebrate a love of airplanes and cycling. The bronzes also serve as a guide for ‘plane spotting’ by providing visuals of planes that one may see in the sky above.”

The project took about 10 months to complete and the overall cost was $1.75 million. And, the city was awarded two Federal Enhancement grants totaling  $1.5 million for design and construction of the trail.

The city is currently in the middle of collecting public feedback for their Parks and Open Space Master Plan. It is scheduled to finish up later this year when recommendations will be presented to the city council.

The next step for regional trails began last Thursday with the city hosting a Lake to Sound Trail public meeting that reviewed the 30 percent completion of the design for Segment A. That segment traverses from the end of Naches Avenue around the north edge of the Black River Forest, across Monster Road bridge, under the BNSF tracks, and connects with the Green River Trail at the north edge of Starfire Sports Complex. There were about 15 to 20 citizens who came out, along with Julia Patterson, King County Council member, said Todd Black, capital project coordinator with Park Planning and Natural Resources.

The design of that project will continue through September 2012 and city officials are hopeful they will get a federal grant to begin construction, said Black.

To access the Logan Avenue North Lake Washington Trail use Logan Avenue between North Sixth Street and Airport Way in Renton.