Construction of the E&N Trail will include a bridge to nowhere -- at least for now.

A pedestrian bridge over Helmcken Road will be installed by September in View Royal. But the bridge won't be open to the public until a future phase of the trail, a pedestrian and cycling route alongside the rail line with the same name, is built.

"There isn't anything there right now," said Leigh Sifton, park planner with the Capital Regional District.

The bridge is being constructed early because the Capital Regional District got a good deal that allowed it to build four instead of the three planned for the first phase of the trail, expected to be open by next summer -- a 14.3-kilometre link between downtown Victoria and Langford through Esquimalt and View Royal.

"We had only budgeted money to do three [bridges], but the low tender came in at a price that gave us four," said Jeff Ward, manager of planning with the Capital Regional District. "We figured that ... by lumping this bridge in with the other bridge contract, we would get a better price than doing it as a sole bridge at a later date," added Sifton.

The four are currently being assembled in Vancouver. They will be transported to the Island by barge in August and installed by September for a total cost of $2.4 million.

The first phase of the route will include gaps where pedestrians will use sidewalks and cyclists will use bike lanes along Old Island Highway and Goldstream Avenue, but additional phases are expected to fill in those gaps and push the trail farther west through Langford past Jacklin Road.

So far, only the first phase has received funding -- $13.3 million has been allocated, with $11.3 million coming from federal gas tax revenues and the balance from the CRD and other sources.

A total of $3.3 million has been spent on construction to date. Much of the western part of the trail is complete, while the eastern portion through Esquimalt should be open by next summer, Ward said.

The portion of the trail running from Savory Elementary School to Veterans Memorial Parkway is already open to the public. Another section that's shared with the Galloping Goose Regional Trail, between the Atkins Road parking lot and Wale Road in Colwood, was paved last fall and is also open.

A third portion of the trail running from Veterans Memorial Parkway to Jacklin Road is almost complete -- just a few intersections need to be finished.

Bike lanes are in place along Goldstream Avenue, but not yet on Old Island Highway.

View Royal expects to begin an eight- to nine-month project tomorrow to rebuild Old Island Highway between Admirals Road and Helmcken Road, widening it to include bike lanes and sidewalks, among other improvements.

The trail has been designed so its hills do not exceed a five per cent grade, although it will reach a 7.5 per cent grade along Old Island Highway.

"In the end, we'll have a figure-eight [with the Galloping Goose], so there are lots of opportunities for doing loops on it," said Ward. "It's a great project to add to the whole regional trail system. It provides another major regional trail link in the system and into other communities."

A link to a map of the trail can be found here

dkarp@tc.canwest.com