Five sections of southern Vancouver Island’s cycling infrastructure from Victoria to Port Alberni will see some major improvements courtesy of $1.4 million in provincial funding announced Thursday.
The province is increasing its funding for the Bike B.C. program by 50 per cent this year, said Transportation Minister Todd Stone at the announcement made with Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps.
The expenditures all flow from the province’s 10-year transportation plan called B.C. on the Move, which calls for almost $2.5 billion in improvements to transportation infrastructure over the next three years, Stone said at a news conference held on the David Foster Harbour Pathway in James Bay.
“It really will be our road map for strategic investments in transportation-related infrastructure in every corner of the province and every facet of transportation,” he said.
In Victoria, the project will fund the creation of two four-metre-wide cyclist/pedestrian bridges at Heron Cove, by Fisherman’s Wharf, and Raymur Point, near the Coast Harbourside hotel, to connect existing pathways from Ogden Point to downtown.
The City of Victoria will match the $440,000 provincial grant to build the project.
Helps said the new bridges will “go a significant way to kick-starting the redevelopment of the David Foster Harbour Pathway.”
The city plans to have the pathways completed by the end of 2018 and the new provincial funding will help push the project toward that goal, Helps said.
“Bridges, as we all know, are difficult to build, so we thank you for taking the opportunity to invest in these bridges that will connect the James Bay neighbourhood more easily with downtown.”
Once completed, the David Foster Harbour Pathway will be more than five kilometres long and extend from Rock Bay to Ogden Point.
The other four Vancouver Island projects are:
• $321,350 for the Atkins Avenue Bicycle Trail connector in Langford — a 320-metre-long, three-metre-wide shared roadway from 301 to 372 Atkins Ave.
• $440,000 for a 3.8-kilometre separated bike path from Sooke Lake Road trailhead to Stebbins Road in the Cowichan Valley
• $140,000 for Borden Street bike lanes in Saanich — a 300-metre-long, four-metre-wide separated bike path from McKenzie Avenue to the Lochside Trail
• $70,000 for the Rogers Creek Ravine Trails project in Port Alberni — a one-kilometre, three-metre-wide, multi-use path from Tebor/Cherry Creek Avenue to Vimy Street
