Sammamish River Trail: Use Caution as Weed Removal Work Begins

Heads up cyclists, walkers, runners and inline skaters – you will not be alone on the trail in the next month.

King County’s annual summertime project to remove weeds from the Sammamish River’s banks and the riverbed itself began last week. Sammamish River Trail users should use caution around work crews and trucks moving along the trail.

The work, which began the week of Aug. 5 and will be completed by Sept. 20, includes mowing and weed removal. 

Divers are removing the invasive aquatic weed Brazilian elodea from the river, starting from Northeast 145th Street by the Northshore ballfields in Woodinville and working upstream toward Marymoor Park. The work is scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Aug. 15. This work will benefit fish and wildlife habitat and is mitigation for removing sediment from the river.

Crews will also mow the Sammamish River transition zone – a 1,400-foot-long section of the river just downstream from the outlet of Lake Sammamish and adjacent Marymoor Park’s off-leash dog area. Crews will remove invasive reed canary grass and associated sediment from the upstream half of the transition zone.

This work will be completed on a Monday-through-Thursday schedule between the hours of 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. 

The Redmond bike trail will be closed to bike and foot traffic for approximately 1,700 feet along West Lake Sammamish Parkway – from Northeast 51st Street to Northeast Marymoor Way. Cyclists will be detoured to existing bike lanes along West Lake Sammamish Parkway. Pedestrians will be detoured to the west side of West Lake Sammamish Parkway using crosswalks at Northeast 51stStreet and Northeast Marymoor Way.

The project helps move wintertime high water out of the lake and down the river in the area known as the “transition zone,” to reduce wintertime floods and improve Sammamish River habitat.

For more information, call King County’s River and Floodplain Management Section at 206-296-8001.