The Spruce Railroad Trail along the north shore of Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park will be closed from the Lyre River Trailhead to approximately 0.25 miles east of Devil’s Punchbowl beginning Tuesday, Aug. 5.

Work to improve the first 1,600 feet of the trail for universal accessibility is expected to be completed by the end of October.

The remainder of the trail between the Camp David Jr. Road Trailhead and Devil’s Punchbowl will continue to be open during the project. Clallam County is funding the project and has contracted with Interwest Construction Incorporated, based in Burlington, Wash. Scheduled work includes construction of an eight-foot wide trail with an adjacent three-foot wide gravel shoulder at the site of the current trail, installation an 80-foot bridge to span a wetland, replacement an existing culvert with a 20-foot bridge and removal and replacement of a culvert buried 15-foot underground. This is the third phase of a project to establish the entire 9.5-mile length of the the trail as a universally accessible, multipurpose trail to be shared by hikers, bicyclists, equestrians and people traveling in wheelchairs.

The Spruce Railroad Trail follows the historic railroad grade of the Spruce Railroad, built in 1918 and abandoned in 1951. Construction of an accessible trail in the Lake Crescent area was addressed in both the 1998 Lake Crescent Management Plan and the 2008 Olympic National Park General Management Plan.

Specific planning for current improvements to the SRRT began in 2010 when initial public input for the project was gathered by park staff.

A Finding of No Significant Impact for the 2012 Spruce Railroad Trail Environmental Assessment was released in fall 2012.