Cheshire Parkway dead-ends into orange fencing this month, right where Chankahda Trail curves past the north side of Lake Camelot Park. The parking lot behind that fencing has been closed since April 21, and it stays that way through the end of construction. A few hundred feet south, the road itself is closed between Cheshire Parkway and Yucca Lane, along with the south leg of the Yucca Lane intersection, with a posted reopening of November 2026.
Two closures, two different agencies you might assume are involved, two separate reasons to be annoyed. Except they are not two projects. Lake Camelot Park sits at 14105 Chankahda Trail, and the boardwalk work inside the park has been folded into the road reconstruction from the start. When the city's own project log describes the north boardwalk demolition, it says construction on the replacement was slated to begin "as part of the Chankahda Trail Project." The park renovation and the road closure share a contractor, a staging plan, and a finish line.
That matters for anyone plotting a fall walking or biking route through this part of Plymouth, because it means the two disruptions will lift together, not on their own separate schedules.
One Project Wearing Two Names
The road piece has a long history. Chankahda Trail was still County Road 47 when Hennepin County transferred it to the city in 2022, and the corridor rebuild that followed converted what the city's public works director described as a two-lane farm road into a divided route with turn lanes and trails on both sides. This final phase, covering the stretch from Vicksburg Lane to Northwest Boulevard, went out to bid at roughly $16 million after City Council approval in early 2025, with the Cheshire Parkway to Northwest Boulevard section carrying into the 2026 construction season. A roundabout near The Boulevard, the former Prudential campus site, at the Teakwood Lane North intersection is part of the same scope, along with pedestrian beacons the city added to this year's plans. A high water table on the corridor ruled out a tunnel option, which is part of why the fix runs at grade, with retaining walls, regraded trail base, and new storm sewer and watermain work threaded through the same footprint.
The park piece rides on top of that. Lake Camelot Park's boardwalk sat in rough shape, and the city's first attempt to fix it hit a wall: the Minnesota DNR denied the permit application to replace the south boardwalk in a Findings of Fact issued January 29, 2025. The redesign that followed folded the boardwalk into the Chankahda Trail Project's own construction calendar. The north boardwalk came out in November 2025. The south boardwalk followed in January 2026, with the new south dock going in that February. A construction bid document for the park improvements lists an estimated completion date of November 1, 2026, the same month the road itself is set to reopen.
What's Actually Closed Right Now
As of the city's most recent project updates, this is the state of the ground:
- Chankahda Trail is closed from Cheshire Parkway to Yucca Lane, and the south leg of the Yucca Lane intersection is closed with it. Both are set to reopen in November 2026.
- The Lake Camelot Park north parking lot has been closed since April 21 and stays closed through the end of construction. Trails inside the park may be temporarily blocked as work continues.
- The Cheshire parking lot on the park's west side reopened June 23, after utility work for the new restroom building wrapped up that same month.
- East boardwalk construction was expected to begin within a few weeks of the city's August 3 update, following playground installation that started August 17.
None of this touches the rest of Plymouth's trail system. The city maintains roughly 186 miles of trail across 68 parks and 1,834 acres of park land, so a closed half-mile segment on one corridor is a detour, not a network-wide problem. But if Lake Camelot has been your route, or if you cut through on Chankahda Trail to reach the Northwest Greenway, the detour is real until that November date holds.
The Park That Finished on a Different Clock
Not every renovation in Plymouth this year is tangled up with the road project, and South Shore Park is the clearest proof. Its playground came out in early November 2025 to make way for a new one, along with relocated basketball courts, a portable toilet enclosure, trail replacement, a drinking fountain, and new bike racks. Tree removal wrapped by March 30. The contractor was back for grading and concrete work by early June, and the city's June 23 update reported the new playground installation essentially complete.
That is a renovation that started and finished within a single construction season, with no permit denial, no boardwalk to rebuild, and no shared footprint with a road project. It is worth knowing the difference, because "Plymouth park renovation" covers two very different timelines this year depending on whether the DNR and a state road corridor are involved.
Rerouting Until November
For anyone who leans on the Lake Camelot area for a regular loop, three alternatives sit close enough to absorb the traffic without much of a detour:
- Northwest Greenway. This nearly 315-acre wooded preserve runs about two linear miles from Lake Camelot on the east end to the Northwest Greenway Pavilion and Challenge Course on the west. The east trailhead sits closest to the construction zone, but the pavilion side is unaffected and reachable from Peony Lane.
- Parkers Lake Park and the Luce Line State Trail. The 2.2-mile loop around Parkers Lake connects directly into the Luce Line, a 63-mile partially paved corridor on an old rail bed that runs out toward Hutchinson and Cosmos. It is a longer haul from the Chankahda corridor and carries none of that project's disruption.
- West Medicine Lake Park. Medicine Lake is the second-largest lake in Hennepin County, and the park on its west side is a full geographic remove from the Chankahda Trail footprint, making it a clean option for anyone who wants distance from both active work zones.
There is a fourth piece of the trail story this year that has nothing to do with construction equipment. Plymouth Parks and Recreation has been actively managing the wooded areas around Turtle Lake Park, clearing buckthorn to restore forest floor health after years of the invasive species crowding out native growth. The opened sightlines have drawn a different kind of trouble: the city has flagged vandalism in the restored areas, including unauthorized bike jumps cut into the cleared ground. It is a reminder that not every disruption to a Plymouth trail shows up on a road department's project page.
What Reopens When
Line up the dates and the picture is simple. South Shore Park is done, its new playground in place since late June. Lake Camelot Park's restroom, playground, and boardwalk work is tracking toward the November 1 completion date in the city's own bid documents. Chankahda Trail itself, along with the Yucca Lane intersection, carries a matching November 2026 reopening on the city's project page. Two disruptions, one shared construction footprint, one shared finish line.
Justin Tolle covers this stretch of Plymouth closely enough to know which closures are temporary and which changes to a block are permanent. If you're weighing a move in or around this part of the Northwest Metro and want a read on how a project like this affects daily life and long-term value, schedule a consultation with Tolle Real Estate Group.
