One of the City of Duncan’s highest priority active-transportation projects is about to begin.
At its meeting on Feb. 24, city council awarded a contract to R&H Williams Trucking Ltd. to install protected bike lanes with concrete buffers along each side of Coronation Avenue.
Work on the approximately $960,000 project is set to start in the coming days, and plans are to have it complete in May.
The bike lanes will create a major east-west cycling corridor across sections of the city where no major east-west connection currently exists.
The lanes will ensure cyclists can travel safely between the downtown core, through the Coronation neighbourhood, and to the commercial centre along the Trans-Canada Highway
The project involves installing new protected one-way bike lanes from the west side of the Trans-Canada Highway to Duncan Street on both sides of Coronation Avenue, Ypres Street, and Queens Road, as well as introducing a new one-way traffic loop for vehicle traffic between the Coronation/Ypres intersection, and along Queens Road west to the Duncan Street intersection.
Coronation Avenue will remain a two-way street, but westbound traffic towards downtown will no longer be permitted up Coronation hill past Ypres Street, and will instead be routed along Ypres Street and Queens Road towards Duncan Street and Canada Avenue.
There will be traffic disruptions in the area as a result of the construction of the bike lanes.
Brian Murphy, the city’s director of public works and engineering, told council that there will be lane closures required for traffic in the area as construction progresses in phases along Coronation Avenue, Ypres Street and Queens Road, and there may be periods of time when individual driveways will not be accessible.
He also said there will be impacts to on-street parking as the bike lanes are installed.
“Some on-street parking will be permanently removed as a result of the project,” Murphy said. “There will also be a significant change to traffic patterns as the one-way loop concept is introduced, and the city will outline these changes on its website and social media. All changes to traffic flows will see significant signage that will start as ‘detours’ that will then evolve into permanent changes.”
The BC Active Transportation Infrastructure Fund granted the city $500,000 for the project in 2023.
“Other than fire-hydrant work, paving and work on storm-catch basins, this project is fully funded by grants from various sources, which is wonderful and appreciated,” Murphy said.
