MEADOWDALE — A plan to remake the beachfront at a popular Snohomish County park is a few steps closer to the drawing board and maybe to reality.
The county is preparing to spend nearly $1.8 million to redesign the railroad embankment that blocks off most of Meadowdale Beach Park from Puget Sound. Trains would travel for 130 feet over a new four-span bridge. The work also would attempt to restore the estuary of Lund’s Gulch Creek, a salmon-bearing stream that runs through the park.
The goal is to give park patrons and fish freer passage to and from the shore. For now, both are restricted to a narrow concrete tunnel under the train tracks. Things could become worse if sea levels rise as predicted.
“What we really view this as is a 100-year solution,” county parks director Tom Teigen said. “There’s a great environmental upside for this project and a great public access upside.”
The County Council unanimously approved contracts last week with engineers, landscape architects and geotechnical experts. Once designs are ready, the county should be well positioned to seek out grants for the work, Teigen said. The total cost to build out the new railroad span and make over the estuary could top $8 million, early estimates suggest.
Any construction is subject to approval from BNSF Railway, which is reviewing the county’s plans.
The county would like to start construction in 2018, if it can line up grant money, parks engineer Logan Daniels said.
Parks officials have spent years looking into the project and have hosted community meetings to gauge neighbors’ thoughts. They expect to schedule another such meeting this fall to provide an update.
Homesteaded by John Lund in 1878, the area of the present-day park underwent a dramatic transformation after the railroad tracks were laid near the Puget Sound shoreline in the early 1890s.
The area was known for fruit and poultry farming in the early 20th century. A country club later bought the land around the gulch, but it closed in the 1960s partly because mudslides had knocked out the access road. The county acquired the property soon thereafter, razed remaining buildings and filled in a swimming pool.
The county closed the park in 1979 until a safe vehicle-access road could be rebuilt, then reopened it in 1988. Storms caused lengthy park closures in 2007 and 1996.
The mile-and-a-quarter-long walking trail through Lund’s Gulch remains a favorite today for short hikes. Sunset Magazine listed it last year among the best wooded escapes close to Seattle.
Thomas Murphy, the chairman of the Anthropology Department at Edmonds Community College, lives near the park and has been involved in monitoring fish culverts and wildlife passages throughout the county. He likes what the project aims to accomplish at Meadowdale Beach.
“Separating human passage from that of fish and wildlife will be a benefit for all,” Murphy wrote in an email. “Salmon need to get upstream unimpeded by periodic flooding and human foot traffic. Wildlife, too, could use a separate passage structure to move from upland areas to the beach and back without conflict with humans.”
Studies elsewhere in the country show that wildlife passages are readily used once built, he said.
Meadowdale Beach Park covers more than 100 acres.
It’s buffered by more than 90 acres of conservation properties owned by the city of Lynnwood. The most recent addition was a 13-acre parcel that had been slated for a housing development. The city purchased the land last year for $6 million, with most of the money coming from county conversation futures grants.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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