Stretch of Centennial Trail to open early

ARLINGTON — Bike riders, runners and dads pushing strollers won’t be forced to wait until the fall rains to check out the newest stretch of the Centennial Trail.

By August, the trail between Arlington and Bryant should be ready to go, said Tom Teigen, Snohomish County parks director. Construction of the first half of an 8-mile, $4.8 million section of trail north of Arlington has progressed so well, a couple of months have been shaved from the schedule, he said.

Then, by late 2011, odds are good that trail users could see the completion of the trail north of Pilchuck Creek and the connection of the 20-block trail gap south of Arlington, Teigen said.

At that point, about 25 years since it was begun, the Centennial Trail will be 25 miles of paved path from downtown Snohomish north to the Skagit County line.

That’s a dream come true to people such as longtime Centennial Trail Coalition member Patricia Shipley of Bryant.

Miles of bright orange fencing along Highway 9 near her farm might appear to some like an installation by the artist Christo, who once ran a cloth fence 25 miles from California’s Sonoma hills to an ocean beach in Marin County.

To Shipley, the trail’s silt-containment construction fence is simply “awesome.”

“They’ve been working like crazy to get this done, and we’re very excited,” Shipley said. “The trail up here is going to be a wonderful thing for families and the community.”

Obtaining the necessary state permits to build a trail bridge over Pilchuck Creek and construct the trail through wetlands south of Arlington has caused delays, but progress is picking up, Teigen said.

“Things are going really well now,” Teigen. “It all looks doable.”

The county estimates it will cost another $2 million to build a connection between the 152nd Street NE trailhead and 172nd Street NE in Arlington. Funding for the project next year is a possibility, Teigen said.

Future Centennial Trail connections could allow trail users to travel all over the county and north to Skagit and south to King counties. Other trails in the network could include the White Horse Trail to Darrington, the Snohomish River Trail and the Interurban Trail in south Snohomish County.

The Centennial Trail, used by thousands of runners, walkers, bikers and horse riders, got its start in the late 1980s when a 6-mile segment was established between Snohomish and Lake Stevens. The stretch from Lake Stevens north to 152nd Street NE was finished in the late 1990s.

The trail officially opened in 1989, the state’s centennial year. It primarily follows an abandoned Great Northern Railroad grade that was laid in the late 1800s.

Trail work ahead

Snohomish County Parks’ trail-work calendar:

April 26-29, grading of trailhead parking lots.

May 17-20, mowing on the Interurban Trail.

May 24-27, mowing on the Centennial Trail.

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