Penticton council gives green light to lake to lake cycling route

Penticton city council gave the go ahead to the new lake to lake cycling route this afternoon.

Council looked at the final design prior to giving approval to proceed at a special meeting of council this afternoon, March 31.

Community Services general manager Anthony Haddad said the project could be ready to go to tender as early as next week, with construction beginning in early May.

Haddad said the $2.26 million dollar cost for the two sections would be budgeted with $600,000 from the City’s bike network planning and infrastructure project, $1,000,000 from the Provincial Community Economic Resiliency stream grant and $600,000 from Gas Tax funds.

Downtown sections could be complete by early June, with plans calling for a protected bike lane using a modular protection system or concrete curbing to protect the bike lane from motorized traffic.

This year’s work is expected to terminate near the intersection of Fairview Road and Duncan Avenue, where changes to the intersection will be undertaken before the cycle path continues beyond.

Councillor Katie Robinson said she was "really in favour” of the project, calling it a significant project that had taken some years to come to fruition, as council unanimously endorsed staff's recommendation to accept the final design and proceed with construction.

— This story was updated at 11:30 a.m. April 1, 2021 to include additional information on the bike route budget.

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