On a weekday morning in Houghton, the gravel of the Cross Kirkland Corridor ends at a fence and detour signs between NE 52nd Street and 108th Avenue NE. King County scheduled a full closure of that stretch to begin September 8, 2026, and said the repair work would take three months. If the schedule holds, the south end of the CKC stays cut off from the rest of the trail until about early December.
At the other end, about five miles north, a signalized crossing at Slater Avenue NE and 132nd Avenue NE now carries people off the CKC and onto Eastrail. Before it opened, the north end stopped at Totem Lake. Now it leads toward Redmond. This fall, the north end goes farther than the south end does.
What's closed in Houghton, and why it's closed again
The CKC is a 5.75-mile crushed-gravel trail from the South Kirkland Park & Ride to Totem Lake. The closed section is at the southern end, which means people coming up from the park and ride can't use the trail as a straight path into the rest of Kirkland.
Work on the same sewer pipe has already closed the south end more than once this year. King County's Eastside Interceptor, one of the largest pipes in the regional sewer system, carries wastewater from Kirkland down to Renton and on to the South Treatment Plant. In January, the County closed the trail to repair joints on the pipe segment known as ESI 14. It finished those pipe repairs in February, then closed the trail near NE 52nd Street again on March 24. To keep sewer service running, crews installed a 3,000-foot temporary diversion pipe above ground on the west side of the trail and left it there for the culvert work.
That culvert work is this fall's closure. A damaged culvert runs under the ESI 14 pipe, and the County is repairing it, building a retaining wall to support the slope, and stabilizing a nearby stream. The City of Kirkland calls the stream Houghton B1 Stream. King County's environmental filing labels it "Unnamed Houghton Slope B Stream" and places the work between 103rd Lane NE and NE 43rd Street along the corridor.
If you live near the work site, King County's August 25 update spells out what to expect:
Work on weekdays from 7 am to 8 pm. Sound from heavy construction equipment sounds during permitted hours. 24-hour lights and pumping for temporary diversion pipe to maintain service. Sound from a generator powering the pumps. Odors at diversion sites.
So the construction stops at 8 p.m. on weekdays, but the pumps and lights run around the clock.
The detour streets
Neither agency has published a written turn-by-turn route. The City's detour map labels these streets around the closed section:
- NE 68th Street
- 106th Avenue NE
- Lakeview Drive
- NE 52nd Street
- Lake Washington Boulevard
- 108th Avenue NE
The map's legend marks one spot as a "Steep Trail Detour Point," separate from the regular detour points. That's useful to know if you're pulling a bike trailer or pushing a stroller. Both agencies ask people to follow the posted signs and stay out of the work area.
One note if you check the City's website. Its general CKC closures page still describes "periodic closures" that end "sometime in the fall." The City's August 27 bulletin and King County's update are newer, and both describe a full closure lasting three months. Neither has given an exact reopening day.
The Slater crossing gives the north end somewhere to go
The City finished the Slater Avenue NE/132nd Avenue NE crossing this spring and had the signals working by April 24, 2026. The ribbon-cutting was June 22. The crossing has a signal for people walking and biking, a protective median in the middle of the road, and a protected northbound bike lane where Slater used to have a second northbound car lane. Drivers turning right from westbound onto northbound Slater now have their own signal.
The City describes the crossing as connecting the CKC to Eastrail and to Woodinville and Redmond. It's a short trip from Totem Lake. At the ribbon-cutting, the group walk from the south landing of the Totem Lake Connector bridge to the Slater crossing covered 0.75 mile.
The trail on the other side was already in place. Kirkland's Willows Road connection filled an 1,800-foot gap between the north end of the CKC and the Redmond Central Connector and Sammamish River trails. Redmond finished the last stretch of its Central Connector in September 2025. It's a paved 1.6-mile segment that Eastrail Partners says links downtown Redmond to Kirkland and Woodinville at 124th.
How far north gets you now
Starting from Totem Lake, here's the order of the route, with what each section connects to:
- The Totem Lake Connector bridge to Slater, about three-quarters of a mile, then across the signalized crossing onto Eastrail.
- The Willows Road connection and the junction at 124th, where the trail meets the Redmond Central Connector and the Sammamish River Trail.
- The Redmond Central Connector into downtown Redmond, with trail access to the Downtown Redmond and Marymoor Village light rail stations.
- The Bear Creek Trail Bridge and the East Lake Sammamish Trail past Marymoor. Eastrail Partners says you can now ride continuously on separated trail from Issaquah to Woodinville.
The light rail stations are the biggest change. A Kirkland rider who leaves the CKC at Totem Lake can stay on separated trail all the way to a Sound Transit platform in Redmond. The south end of the CKC, the part that reaches the South Kirkland Park & Ride, is the part that's closed right now.
Stops along the open trail
Everything from 108th Avenue NE north to Slater is open, along with the newer pieces around downtown.
The NE 85th Street work is finished. The CKC segment there reopened May 29, and the new shared-use pathway on NE 85th opened June 4, 2026. According to the City's last weekly update, the remaining punch list includes plantings that need no irrigation, scheduled for this fall. Some light work may still show up along the path.
Near Google's Sixth Street South campus, Feriton Spur Park sits right on the corridor at 509 6th Street South. The City built the park in partnership with Google. Eastrail Partners described its 2025 performance series as happening "right on the trail."
Kirkland Urban is a short walk off the trail for coffee or lunch. Its tenant directory lists Caffe Ladro, Chainline Brewing, Dough Zone, Shake Shack, Soi Thai Restaurant and Bar, and Vinason. The directory was last updated in late 2025, so it's worth checking hours before you go.
At the north end, Totem Lake Park, the Totem Lake Connector bridge, and The Village at Totem Lake are all near the trail, right before the turn toward Slater.
Limits on the longer rides
Woodinville is still a work in progress. The city of Woodinville is planning a 1.9-mile Eastrail corridor from Wilmot Gateway Park through downtown to the city limits. It will open interim sections in phases, and the sections tied to the SR 202 trestle project won't open until that project is done. Riding toward Woodinville gets you to the connection at 124th. It doesn't yet get you a finished trail through downtown Woodinville.
On the Redmond side, if you plan to keep going south toward Issaquah, a 600-foot section of the East Lake Sammamish Trail between Louis Thompson Road NE and NE Inglewood Hill Road has been closed since June 1, 2026. It's scheduled to stay closed through the end of the year, and King County lists no detour.
Eastrail's online map, last updated in 2025, still shows the Slater signal as a future project. The City's project page is newer and confirms the crossing is open.
When the Houghton section reopens, the CKC will run its full length again, and the Slater crossing will add Eastrail at the north end. Until then, the open trail runs from 108th Avenue NE through downtown and Totem Lake, across Slater, and on toward Redmond.
Trail access often comes up in local home searches, and the CKC changed a lot this year. For a straight answer on how far a home is from a CKC access point or the Slater crossing, call or email Yang Xiao for a free local market consultation.
