Pacific Northwest - Centennail Trail (Snoh. Cty.) extension to begin

UPDATE: CENTENNIAL TRAIL, SNOHOMISH COUNTY

It looks like construction on the Arlington North extension of the Centennial Trail is going to happen. This will take it from Arlington up to the county line below Lake McMurray.

A thread on NW railtrails got me googling and, among other items, this came up...


Centennial Trail extension work to begin soon

By Gale Fiege
Herald Writer

9/5/2009

ARLINGTON — It may only seem to them like they’ve been waiting 100 years for the Centennial Trail to be completed.

After years of patience, the walkers, hikers, runners, horsemen and bicycle riders of the Centennial Trail Coalition of Snohomish County are looking forward to traversing a new stretch of trail. It isn’t cleared yet, but construction is slated to begin next month.

“We need a groundbreaking ceremony and a party,” trail coalition chairman Bea Randall said. “This has been a long time coming and we’re all very excited.”

Work on the proposed 8-mile section from Arlington north to the Skagit County line is expected to start in October, Snohomish County Parks and Recreation director Tom Teigen said.

The permits are in hand, the project went out to bid this week and county officials plan to award the construction project by the end of the month. Construction on the new section of trail, funded in part by the state, will cost about $6 million, Teigen said.

The Centennial Trail got its start in the late 1980s, when a 6-mile segment was established between Snohomish and Lake Stevens. It opened in 1989, the state’s centennial year, and primarily follows an old railroad line from the late 1800s.

The northern section of the trail from Arlington runs parallel to Highway 9 on the former railway right of way.

The county is still working to obtain permits to repair an existing 100-year-old bridge or build a new trail bridge over Pilchuck Creek north of Bryant.

Because of the weak economy, construction bids for county projects have been coming in at about 20 percent lower than originally estimated, Teigen said.

“So there’s a good chance we may be on our way to completing the whole construction phase,” he said. “We couldn’t be more excited to get this going.”


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That's good news. I am down in Winter Quarters in Newport Beach - wearing shorts, not fleece - but I hope that local riders will take cameras and keep us all updated on what is happening to this project. You can post here and post updates to the Centennial Trail page on Traillink.com.

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Meanwhile - the Anmar Gap remains a gap.

From the current trail end of the Centennial at Anmar Rd. up to Rt 531 at the bottom of the airport, where you access that biketrail/sidewalk, you are playing with the logging trucks and others on the two lane, no shoulder, ditch with briars Stillaguamish Highway for about 1.3 miles. Pedal fast.

Last I heard, they were hoping ('08) to get a grant to finish that section. The Arlington North extension was funded, but there was no $$ to fill the gap. Does anyone know if they got some money?

I would have though that finishing that gap so the trail can link Snohomish to Arlington and we have can a seamless ride up to sip lattes in Arlington would have more logic than doing an extension into the wilds of Rt. 9, where it ends. Does Skagit Cty. have any plans to pick it up from there? Currently, they can't keep the briars off the Cascade Trail. Not a rich county.


My goal is to sit in Legion Park in Arlington and try to decide if I want to ride the Centennial to the south or to the north or take the Whitehorse to Darrington - while sipping latte, of course.

The latter will take some time. Understand the first few and last few miles are usable and they brushed the trail last year.

Anyone with a camera and GPS - or just a camera - want to take some pix of trail conditions on the Whitehorse? How far can you go from the bridge at Haller Park? What is it like from Swede Heaven Rd. into Darrington. What is it like out in the middle of the route?

ToolBear

yeah, that missing connection between the town and the north half of the trail pickup by the grocery store is an unfortunate aspect of the centennial trail. not that the riding is that bad on the road but it is narrow, virtually nonexistant shoulder.



surely there's a way to complete it!

yeah, that missing connection between the town and the north half of the trail pickup by the grocery store is an unfortunate aspect of the centennial trail. not that the riding is that bad on the road but it is narrow, virtually nonexistant shoulder.



surely there's a way to complete it!

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There certainly is. I About $1.6 mil. Somewhere it was asserted that a blacktop trail is 125,000 a mile while a gravel one is 25,000 per mile.

Another problem is that there is really no decent trailhead in Arlington. Legion Park would be logical, but I did not see any restrooms there and the only water looked like irrigation water.


"The popular middle section of the recreation trail covers about 17 miles between Snohomish and Arlington, not including a gap in the trail between 152nd Street NE and 172nd Street NE, which county officials hope to close at some point."

PRESS RELEASE FROM SNOHOMISH COUNTY...


On Wednesday, September 22, 2009, in a conference room on sixth floor of the Drewel
Administration Building, seventeen general contractors waited anxiously to see if the bid they
had submitted to the County for the construction of the long-anticipated Centennial Trail Phase
II–Arlington to Skagit County would be the lowest responsible proposal. The buyer from the
County’s Purchasing Division opened each bid package and, after determining whether all the
required information was included, read the name of the contractor and the amount of the bid.
After all the bid proposals were recorded, the lowest responsible bid was submitted by Strider
Construction. Their bid for the entire project, including all of the alternates, was $4,858,500,
substantially under the recorded engineer’s estimate.

This section of the Centennial Trail, a paved multipurpose recreational trail that will serve
walkers, bicycles, equestrians and others, will stretch 8-miles along an abandoned railroad rightof-way starting at Burke Street in the City of Arlington and terminating at a trailhead located on the Snohomish/Skagit County line.

The trail crosses the old railroad trestle over the Stilliguamish River and continues, elevated above the valley featuring outstanding sunsets and rich vistas. The trail continues to historic Bryant where a trailhead will be located. There it crosses to the west side of SR 9. The next section of the trail passes through a wooded area until it reaches Pilchuck Creek where the bridge crossing will feature a newly constructed steel bridge. The trail then parallels Tributary 80 and passes through the Pilchuck Tree Farm where it finally arrives at the northernmost trailhead.

The bid will be formally accepted by the County Council at its next legislative session. It is
anticipated that the construction of the trail will take at least one year.

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Substantially under estimates? But, of course. Those guys are hungry. At least they can keep their crew at work. "Bid it in the dirt," my boss told our estimator on a project down here in SoCal. Does anyone have a good backlog of work nowadays?

County is said to own an 83 acre farm at the upper end that will become the new trail head.

This is very exciting!:thumb:

Whoo Hoo!
That is one of my favorite trails!

Very cool! Can't wait for the extension.