Work is underway on King County’s Lake to Sound Trail, an emerging 16-mile paved path that will extend from Lake Washington to Puget Sound and connect with four other regional trails.

Once completed, the multi-use trail will connect five cities – Renton, Tukwila, Burien, SeaTac, and Des Moines – and Sound Transit’s Tukwila International Boulevard Station. It also will link to the Eastside Rail Corridor Trail, Cedar River Trail, Interurban Trail, and Green River Trail.

The county will use a $600,000 grant from the state Recreation and Conservation Funding Board to pay for building about one-third of a mile of trail along Des Moines Memorial Drive from South Normandy Road to State Route 509/Eighth Avenue South. Pedestrian and vehicle traffic signals will be included in the project.

In 2017, the county opened a 1.5-mile segment of the Lake to Sound Trail that connected Normandy Park, Burien, and Tukwila and Sound Transit’s Link light rail station in Tukwila. It was largely funded by the county parks levy.

“Urban trails provide a crucial opportunity for outdoor recreation in communities that lack access to traditional open space,” said King County Councilman Dave Upthegrove, whose district includes all five cities the new segment of trail will pass through. “Health disparities across my district are higher than in any other part of the county. South King County residents deserve better and will greatly benefit from the completion of this trail.”