If you walk your dog on the Cross Kirkland Corridor before work, you probably remember the relief of that February announcement. King County said the pipe was fixed. The trail between NE 52nd Street and 108th Avenue NE reopened on February 23, 2026, ending a closure that had dragged on since a leak was first detected the previous July. For a lot of regulars, that felt like the whole saga was over. Trail's back, life resumes, see you at Marina Park.
Except if your route runs anywhere near NE 85th Street, you already know it isn't over. There's still a fenced-off gap in the middle of the corridor, and it has nothing to do with the sewer pipe that made headlines all winter. It's a separate project, on a separate timeline, tied to a piece of regional infrastructure that won't fully wrap up until 2027. Understanding why matters if you're planning a fall commute, a dog-walking loop, or just want to stop checking the city's closures page every week.
The sewer story is actually finished
The southern closure was the dramatic one. In late July 2025, King County and City of Kirkland crews found sewage leaking from the county's Eastside Interceptor Section 14 pipe, a 7-foot-diameter line that runs under the trail and carries roughly 10 million gallons of wastewater a day during dry weather. No public health risk was identified, but the county issued a Declaration of Urgency in September to speed up repairs, and Kirkland followed with its own Proclamation of Emergency. Crews installed a temporary above-ground pipe, roughly 3,000 feet of 18-inch line, to keep sewer service running while they fixed the joints underneath the trail.
That work is done. The affected stretch reopened in February, and the temporary above-ground pipe is staying in place through summer for follow-up culvert repairs, which could mean another short, localized closure this season. That's a minor asterisk, not a reason to distrust the reopening. The sewer emergency, as far as trail access goes, is a closed chapter.
The NE 85th Street gap runs on freeway time
The closure that's still active sits at NE 85th Street, and it started around the same time as the sewer crisis for an unrelated reason. Kirkland and Sound Transit broke ground on July 8, 2025 on a shared-use pathway meant to connect downtown Kirkland to the Rose Hill neighborhood and to Sound Transit's new 405 Bus Rapid Transit station. Deputy Mayor Jay Arnold put the purpose plainly at the groundbreaking:
"This shared path will close the accessibility gap between downtown Kirkland and Sound Transit's new 405 Bus Rapid Transit station."
Part of that pathway crosses directly over the Cross Kirkland Corridor, which meant building a pedestrian bridge over the trail, and that meant closing the trail underneath it while crews worked overhead. Early estimates put substantial completion around spring 2026.
Here's the part that's easy to miss. That pathway isn't a standalone trail project. It's stitched into a much bigger undertaking: the I-405/Northeast 85th Street Interchange and Inline BRT Station Project, a three-level interchange rebuild led by WSDOT and Sound Transit. That project broke ground back in 2023, and WSDOT's own project page states plainly that the agency anticipates the new interchange opening to traffic in early 2027. A new roundabout at the NE 85th Street and 114th Avenue NE intersection was targeted for spring 2026, with crews expected to finish that piece around June.
So even in a best case where the pedestrian bridge itself opens on the pathway project's original timeline, the trail segment underneath it sits inside an active freeway construction zone that isn't scheduled to fully settle until early 2027. If you've been checking the city's page hoping for a firm reopening date and coming up empty, that's why. The trail piece can only move as fast as the interchange around it allows.
What actually got fixed, quietly
While the two headline closures dominated the conversation, a few smaller fixes went in without much fanfare, and they're the kind of thing only regular users notice.
- The long-standing gap at Slater Avenue near Totem Lake, where the trail crossed railroad tracks in the street with no safe crosswalk, now has a signalized crossing. It sits about a half mile east of the Totem Lake Connector Bridge and closes a crossing that trail users had complained about for years.
- King County formally legalized class 1 and 2 e-bikes across all Eastrail segments, matching what had informally been the practice on the Cross Kirkland Corridor for years. The speed limit stays at 15 mph corridor-wide, and the responsibility to slow down around pedestrians hasn't changed.
- Kirkland's stretch of the trail keeps generous hours, open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, wider than the dusk-to-dawn policy some other regional trail segments still use. County officials have been discussing whether to extend hours elsewhere, particularly for winter commuters who lose daylight early.
None of these are dramatic, but together they say something about how the corridor is being managed. The big, disruptive projects get press releases. The small annoyances, the missing crosswalk, the ambiguous e-bike rules, get fixed in the background by people who are actually watching how the trail gets used every day.
The trail is also becoming a place, not just a route
Construction fatigue aside, the corridor keeps building out its identity as more than a north-south connector. Feriton Spur Park, a small park along the Eastrail near Totem Lake, is hosting a Summer Concert Series this year, supported by a $5,000 Ignite Kirkland grant from the Kirkland Community Foundation. It's a small grant and a small park, but it's evidence that the corridor is attracting the kind of community programming usually reserved for a town square, not a converted rail bed.
Planning your fall miles
If you're mapping a fall routine, treat the corridor as two reliable segments with one active gap in between. South of NE 85th, the trail runs clear through downtown Kirkland toward the South Kirkland Park and Ride, including the stretch that reopened in February. North of NE 85th, you've got clear passage through the Totem Lake area, across the fixed Slater Avenue crossing, and up toward the city's northern edge. The middle, right around NE 85th itself, is where you'll still hit fencing and detour signage. Two routes are posted around that closure: an ADA-accessible option that adds distance but avoids steep grades, and a shorter alternate that includes a couple of steep hills. Which one you pick depends on whether you're pushing a stroller or just trying to shave five minutes off a run.
Check current signage before you head out, especially this summer, since the temporary above-ground sewer pipe left near the trail could still trigger a short localized closure for culvert work. But the big picture is a corridor that's roughly two-thirds normal and one-third captive to a freeway project that has its own clock, one that doesn't fully stop ticking until early 2027.
Knowing which third you're standing on, and why, is the difference between a frustrating detour and an informed one.
That kind of granular, block-by-block read on what's actually happening in Kirkland, not just what the headlines say, is the same lens Nick Loveless Real Estate brings to the neighborhoods it covers every day. Whether you're tracking trail closures or thinking ahead to your next move on the Eastside, Work With Nick when you're ready for that kind of local read on the market itself.
