This news is a bit ironic, given the nature of the preceding post ("High Tide Holiday Adventure"). On December 12th the City of Burien announced closure of the stairway at Eagle Landing Park, following recent storm surge activity. We've highlighted in a previous post how high, wind-driven tides have already damaged the bottom of the stairway down at the beach. Now it appears that even the stairway's supporting piers may have moved at places higher up along the hillside.
This remarkable stairway was quite ingeniously designed to withstand slow but consistent earth movements along the wet, steep slope (see book sidebar, p. 187). Nonetheless city officials have decided to keep walkers off the stairway structure indefinitely, pending further evaluation of its safety and integrity.
The damaged base of the Eagle Landing stairway as of March, 2014
Burien is still a great neighborhood to explore! For an alternative to the Eagle Landing route detailed in our book, we highly recommend the Indian Trail. It's a "local secret" walking trail that winds between homes near the shore around Three Tree Point. There's a wonderful stairway too!
For a good map and description of the Indian Trail that you can follow on your own, click here at the WABI Burien website (WABI Burien is a walking and bicycling advocacy and activity group). The stairway runs from SW 171st Street near the start of the route linked above. It isn't a loop route, so you'll either have to find your own way back or arrange for a vehicle at the end.