"Full trail closure for three months, starting September 8." That line comes from King County's August 25, 2026 notice. It is the latest of many closure notices for the same stretch of the Cross Kirkland Corridor, the part between Northeast 52nd Street and 108th Avenue Northeast near South Kirkland Park & Ride.
The trail isn't being worked on. It's being worked around. For more than a year, the open and close dates on the CKC's southern stretch have followed the repair schedule of a regional sewer pipe that runs alongside the trail. If you use that stretch to get to Houghton Beach, the park and ride, or Bellevue, the pipe has more say over your route than the trail does.
A Seven-Foot Pipe Beside the Gravel
The pipe is Eastside Interceptor Section 14, or ESI 14. It is 7 feet across, King County owns it, and in dry weather it carries about 2.6 million gallons of wastewater a day to the South Treatment Plant in Renton. The county calls the Eastside Interceptor one of the largest pipes in its regional sewer system. It collects wastewater from local city systems between Kirkland and Renton.
In July 2025, King County and City of Kirkland crews found the pipe leaking into a culvert. The county worked with Public Health – Seattle & King County and found no public health risk. The City calls the waterway the Houghton B1 Stream. In September 2025, the City Manager issued an emergency proclamation to support the county's repair. The county's environmental checklist map gives the same creek a longer name, "Unnamed Houghton Slope B Stream."
The CKC runs 5.75 miles of crushed gravel from South Kirkland Park & Ride north through Totem Lake. The stretch affected by the pipe work sits at the far south end, where the trail ends at the park and ride.
A Year of Open, Closed, Open
To see why this stretch has felt unreliable, you have to put the county and City bulletins side by side. Here is the sequence:
- September 29, 2025. The first full closure begins. The City expected about two weeks, followed by a narrowed 5-foot trail and intermittent closures for six to eight weeks.
- October 15, 2025. The trail reopens as early as this date for the Lake Washington Half Marathon. It closes again Monday, October 20, with construction expected through November.
- December 11, 2025. The segment reopens temporarily for about two weeks.
- January 5, 2026. The trail closes again, with construction expected through February.
- January 20, 2026. Starting as early as this date, wastewater moves into a temporary above-ground pipe while repairs continue.
- February 27, 2026. The county sets this as the earliest reopening date. In a February 27 update, Eastrail Partners reports that the southern Kirkland segment reopened that week.
- March 24, 2026. The trail closes for one day for soil testing and reopens at 5 p.m.
- September 8, 2026. The current full closure begins, with three months of work planned.
From late September 2025 through early March 2026, the trail was open for only a few short windows. It then had a quiet spring and summer before closing again this fall.
The Pipe Is Fixed. The Ground Under It Is Next.
Since crews already finished the pipe, a new closure can seem odd. The county says the ESI 14 pipe repairs were done in February. The current job is the second phase.
The damaged culvert runs under the sewer pipe. This fall's work repairs that culvert, builds a retaining wall to hold up the slope at the site, and stabilizes the nearby stream. The county says the goal is to protect the pipe from damage in the future. So the first phase fixed the leak, and this phase rebuilds the ground and water flow around the pipe.
The 3,000-foot temporary diversion pipe installed during the first phase was left on the west side of the trail for the culvert work. The county plans to remove it and restore the site once this phase is done.
Neighbors near the work zone should expect the following during construction, according to the county:
- Work on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Noise from heavy equipment during permitted hours
- Lights and pumping 24 hours a day for the temporary diversion pipe
- Noise from a generator powering the pumps
- Odors at diversion sites
When It Reopens Depends on Which Page You Read
King County gives the work a duration of three months, but not an end date. Three months from September 8 lands around December 8, 2026. That's simple math, not a promised reopening day.
The City of Kirkland's CKC closures page describes the timing more loosely:
Periodic trail closures from NE 52nd Street to 108th Ave NE starting in August 2026 and ending sometime in the fall, dependent on the pace of construction.
The county's August 25 notice is the more specific and more recent of the two. It describes a full closure, not periodic ones. As of early October, we found no newer update from the county, the City, or Eastrail Partners posted since work started September 8. The county's project page is the one to bookmark. Its list of past updates has one typo to know about. The January closure notice is labeled "December 29, 2026," but it was actually sent December 29, 2025.
Going by the past year, a reopening date is the earliest the trail might open, not a guarantee. The February reopening was announced "as early as Friday, February 27," and the December window was also described as "as early as."
Getting Around the Gap
The county says a signed detour is in place and asks trail users to follow the signs and stay out of the work area. The county's detour map labels NE 68th St, 106th Ave NE, Lakeview Drive, NE 52nd St, Lake Washington Blvd, and 108th Ave NE. It marks one spot as a "Steep Trail Detour Point." The map doesn't list turns or a total distance, so follow the posted signs on the ground.
Expect hills. The City's detour map from September 2025, made for the first phase, showed one "detour route with hills" and a "short detour route with very steep hill." It also flagged stairs and linked to a map showing how the slope affects travel speed. That map is from the earlier phase, but the land between the trail and the lake hasn't changed.
If you ride a bike, Lake Washington Blvd NE is the main alternative on the road. A December 2022 City transportation memo calls Lake Street S and Lake Washington Blvd NE a key corridor from downtown Kirkland south toward Bellevue and SR 520. The memo describes it as a popular scenic bike and walking route, with bike lanes in its typical layout.
If you mostly use this stretch for a walk and not to get somewhere, these places are still open on either side of the closure:
- Feriton Spur Park, 509 6th Street S, is a linear park inside Google's 6th Street campus. It has a paved trail, bathrooms, an urban farm, and a splash area.
- Everest Park, 500 8th St S, has ballfields, pickleball, a playground, a picnic shelter, restrooms, and trails.
- Watershed Park covers 75.5 acres of forest trails and an overlook. Its short trail from 108th Ave NE joins the CKC near the south end of the closure. You can also enter at the south ends of 112th and 114th avenues NE, and at NE 45th and 110th Ave NE.
- Doris Cooper Houghton Beach Park, 5811 Lake Washington Blvd, has a playground, picnic areas, and volleyball, and it's right on the detour's lakeside route.
- Carillon Point has a public shoreline walkway, with Yarrow Bay Marina just to the south.
If your CKC trip ends at a bus, South Kirkland Park & Ride is still the stop for routes 249, 250, 255, 981, and 986.
South of the Park & Ride, There's No Trail Yet
When the culvert work wraps up, the CKC will again end at South Kirkland Park & Ride. A continuous off-street trail to Bellevue doesn't exist yet. Eastrail's map lists the Cross Kirkland Corridor and "Eastrail South" as separate sections. King County expects the Wilburton Trestle to open in mid-2027. The 0.65-mile Central Wilburton segment, which will link the trestle to the open NE 8th Street bridge, is scheduled for construction in 2026 and 2027 and is expected to open in 2027. The crossing at I-90 isn't expected to open until 2031.
One nearby option has already closed. The temporary Houghton Park and Play, at the old Houghton Park and Ride site, closed May 4, 2026 to make way for the future Kraken Iceplex and Kirkland Community Center. The City has said it plans to move the temporary play features elsewhere.
Until December, the quickest way to know the status of the stretch between NE 52nd and 108th Ave NE is the county's ESI 14 project page, not the trailhead.
If your home backs onto the corridor and you're planning a sale around this construction, AMP Properties Group NW can show you how nearby projects like this one affect timing and pricing. Get an Instant Home Valuation, or ask about selling fast for cash if the calendar matters more than the trail's reopening date.
