Green River Trail reopens to bicycling in Kent

A central section of the Green River Trail that passes through Kent is now open for bicycle traffic, after being closed since March 2014. This is great timing, because it coincides with some spring-like weather this weekend.

Cyclists already are using smooth pavement on reopened Green River Trail

If you’re looking to ride your bike someplace you haven’t visited in a while this weekend, then I’d suggest heading down to Green River Trail.

Extensive work to improve the levee forced closure of the trail between the pedestrian bridge at 180th Street and the crossing at 200th Street. The work put the Briscoe Park and Three Friends Park off limits to bicyclists and pedestrians, who had to take a detour on the Interurban Trail.

When I rode down there on Friday, some landscaping crews were still at work spreading compost along the trail that runs atop the levee.

What struck me was the newly paved trail, that looks a couple of feet wider than the previous path atop the levee.

It also appears that a lot of grading has been done, and acres of trees, shrubs and ivy have been removed from the river bank.

Crews worked on landscaping on Friday

Also, a wall has been installed on the Briscoe and Desimone sections of the levee for strength, to enlarge the holding capacity and, hopefully, to avoid the use of sandbags on the levee trail.

Miles of the Green River Trail were closed several years ago when huge sandbags covered the trail to protect communities and businesses in the flood plain from the possibility of flooding because of problems at the Howard Hanson Dam.

The Green River Trail starts in the north on the western shore of the river in the vicinity of Boeing Field. It follows the river through Tukwila, past Southcenter Mall, and through Kent. It joins the Interurban Trail in the vicinity of South 259th Street.

A popular 20-mile ride that uses the Green River Trail starts at the Starfire Soccer Complex in Tukwila. Follow the trail south until it intersects with the Interurban Trail, the return to the soccer complex. The ride is described in Chapter 13 of my guidebook, Best Bike Rides – Seattle.

As soon as this project is complete, work will begin on another section of levee between the pedestrian bridge and a trailhead on a trail spur to South 180th Street. I was told this won’t affect the main stem of the trail.