Fewer and fewer giant sandbags are blocking the Green River Trail in Kent.

Crews have removed 16,527 sandbags through Aug. 30, according to city officials. That’s about 516 bags per day of the nearly 20,000 along the levees.

AGR Contracting, Inc., of Monroe, received the contract of $894,628 to remove the sandbags and repair any damage to the Green River Trail, a popular walking and bicycling destination. Workers have found minimal damage to the trail.

City officials expect to have all of the sandbags gone by the end of September. Crews started to remove the sandbags on July 10.

Crews placed 3-foot high sandbags along the trail three years ago for extra flood protection along the levees after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discovered a January 2009 storm had damaged an abutment next to the Howard Hanson Dam on the upper Green River. The Corps completed repairs to the dam last fall. No heavy rainstorms ever tested the sandbags.

The King County Flood Control District will cover most of the cost of the sandbag removal by delaying certain levee projects along the river. The district is funded through a county-wide property levy of 10 cents per $1,000 assessed value.