Victoria hopes to have the next leg of its separated bike network — down Wharf Street — all but completed by summer.
“It looks like it can be completed in whole by June 28,” said Sarah Webb, the city’s active transportation manager.
“Our goal is to get in and get out before the big tourist season starts. If we have to do some followup work in the late summer and into the early fall, we will.”
The city has gone to tender for the project — a two-way separated lane to run along Wharf Street between Pandora Avenue and Douglas Street at Humboldt Street, and a shared-road bikeway on Humboldt to Vancouver Street.
Under the shared-street concept, measures are taken to reduce motor-vehicle traffic to between 1,000 and 1,500 vehicles a day, so cyclists of all ages and abilities feel safe to use the route.
When completed, it will be the third leg in the bike network, providing a north-south connection to the first bike lanes on Pandora and Fort Street and a link to the Galloping Goose Regional Trail via the Johnson Street Bridge.
To make room for the separated bike lane, 21 parking stalls will be removed on Wharf Street. The city says it’s adding nine stalls in the 800 block and 900 block of Humboldt.
“Any loss [of parking] is obviously something that we take seriously, but it was part of the project design in terms of being able to provide that safe space and dedicated space for pedestrians, cyclists and everybody else who needs to use that street,” Webb said.
The city opened the first leg of the cycling network — a two-way bike lane on Pandora between Cook and Wharf streets — in April 2017, at a cost of $3.4 million. The second leg, on Fort between Cook and Wharf, opened in May at a cost of $3.27 million.
The global budget approved for the Wharf/Humbodlt section is about $4.02 million, but the city is hopeful competitive bids will drive costs down.
Webb says interest in the tender call, which closes Jan. 23, has been high.
Underground work has been underway for about two months on this phase.
Plans call for a separated bike lane to continue along Humboldt to what is now a five-corner intersection at Douglas, Humboldt and Burdett Avenue. That intersection is to be reconfigured into a four-way corner, as Humboldt will be blocked off to motor-vehicle traffic on the east side of Douglas.
Cycling lanes are to continue on Humboldt east of Douglas to Vancouver Street, but as a shared roadway, not a separated bike lane.
The bike-lane work will also introduce the city’s first full-fledged scramble crosswalk, as the design calls for a realignment of the tourist-heavy intersection at Government and Humboldt streets.
Plans are to square off the intersection into a traditional configuration, so motorists driving south on Wharf will be able to continue up to Douglas Street, instead of being forced farther south past the Empress Hotel.
With a scramble crosswalk, motor-vehicle traffic is stopped in all directions while pedestrians get their own signal phase and are allowed to cross in any direction, including diagonally across the intersection.
