A 30-year-old culvert is being replaced to improve salmon habitat on Cedar Creek. Kirkland commuters should prepare for detours on 100th Avenue Northeast.
A short section of 100th Avenue Northeast will close south of its intersection with Simonds Road for up to three weeks, starting July 22.
The all-day, all-night closure allows Kirkland’s contractor to replace the Cedar Creek culvert with a new 10-foot-wide, by eight-foot-tall concrete box culvert. The new culvert will open nearly a mile of upstream habitat to trout, Coho and other salmon. It will also provide enough space for the 100th Avenue Northeast Roadway Improvement Project. This future project will add two more automotive lanes, sidewalks and sidewalk-level bicycle lanes on both sides of the street between Northeast 139th and 145th streets.
The City is strongly encouraging commuters to use the official detour route—Northeast 145th Street, Juanita-Woodinville Road—while 100th Avenue Northeast is closed.
Kirkland is promoting the detour route on the electronic reader boards, in the project flyer and on a pair of community signs its staff installed at the project’s limits. Additionally, Kirkland’s staff members will monitor the area during the closure, and if patrol emphasis is warranted, they will coordinate with the police department.
“The work being done on this project will help protect our native fish populations while giving us the ability to make transportation improvements that will benefit community members that walk, bicycle and drive,” said Interim Public Works Director Julie Underwood. “However, we know that this work will create traffic complications for commuters and for neighboring residents. Please plan for extra time and utilize the detour route so that we can finish this work efficiently and with as minimal impact as possible on adjacent community members.”
Kirkland’s contractor, Interwest Construction, is currently preparing the site for the box culvert. The contractor’s crews will primarily work from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. To expedite the culvert’s installation, and thus minimize the length of the road closure, its crews will work until 8 p.m. and on some weekends.
Later in the fall, the City will hire a contractor to build the sidewalks, bicycle lanes and the extra two vehicle lanes, as well as the rest of 100th Avenue Northeast’s first phase elements. Those include increasing automotive capacity at 100th Avenue Northeast’s intersection with Simonds Road.
For more information, visit kirklandwa.gov/100thavedesign.
