This will make responses to those incidents more manageable and ranger access easier and safer.” “They’ll fall off the rocks, twist their ankles and when we have to then hike them out, that takes eight people. “We get a lot of injured individuals,” Smith said. The rangers and park employees are excited for the benefits the project will provide to the area and to their day-to-day tasks. Keenan said it requires much less excavation and sits much shallower in the ground lessening the boardwalks’ impacts.
To lessen the environmental impact on these sensitive areas, the boardwalks’ foundations will be grounded by a Pin Pile construction method that does not go deep into the ground like traditional concrete footings.
“Along the way through the forest, there will be two new boardwalks to keep people out of these critical and sensitive areas,” Keenan said. Along the path to Clayton Beach, there are numerous wetland areas that are sensitive to traffic. Reier said that Larabee State Park will not have a lot of funding to block off use of the social trails, but they will plant native plants and use down trees to deter use. “The old trail and social trails will be decommissioned, and we will be replanting native species to mitigate people from continuing to use them and let the wetland areas go back to their natural state,” said Mallory Reier, the administrative assistant for the Whatcom bays area. Smith said there are not a lot of natural beaches in Washington, and it is important to protect the ones that are left. “We are the main ‘easy-access’ recreation area,” Smith said. Larrabee State Park is close to Bellingham, making it easy for those living in town to get outdoors. “There's a lot of trails coming down there and they say it’ll be controlled, but you know how that goes,” Earley said. “We have really bad erosion there, cars have slid off the road and people have eroded the land by using that spider web of social trails coming off the highway.”Įarley said he has concerns that the new trail will attract more people and said that excess people is what has created erosion and social trials in the first place. “We’ve had people fall and break their ankles,” said Alexander Smith, a Larrabee State Park Ranger. On the west side of Chuckanut Drive near the Clayton Beach trailhead, social trails have become erosive and hazardous. “We used to ride our horses all the time,” said Dan Earley, a retired fireman in his 80s. The engineers expected cost for the project was estimated to be $1.059 million but due to supply chain issues, increased material costs, and demand for construction contractors, the real cost was $1.546 million after sales tax.įor decades, beachgoers have been hiking down to Clayton Beach via numerous ‘social trails’ trails that are unofficially created by foot traffic, then crossing the railroad tracks, which is illegal according to the park rangers. Keenan said the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office has provided a grant in 2015 that has fully funded this project in part as a response to this safety concern. Provide a continuous path from the trailhead to the BNSF railroad overpass that is accessible to emergency response via ATV (for Park Rangers only).Ī 110-foot Clear span (nothing under the bridge to support it) that crosses the over the BNSF railroad Two Boardwalks that will keep foot traffic off the sensitive, soggy wetland areas Mitigation and closure of existing social trails by replanting native vegetation in those areas and use of erosion control methods to prevent further hillside erosion on the west side of Chuckanut Drive Provide 2,000 feet of new trail through the forest that is firm and dry The Clayton Beach Pedestrian Overpass project will accomplish: “This time of year is full, even on weekends which is becoming the new norm with outdoor recreation in general in Washington and we have to adapt to these changes,” Smith said. “While this process has taken longer than anticipated, it is just that – a process.”Īnnual vehicle visitation to Larrabee State Park in 2020 was 372,148 cars, which is 147% more compared to visitation in 2016, according to Washington State Parks Visitation data. “I believe the work may be completed in June, but this really depends on obtaining BNSF approval to construct the bridge over the railway,” said Brian Keenan, the northwest region construction project coordinator.
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