City eyes $16M for bike paths, sidewalks

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/city-hall-plans-more-than-16m-in-sidewalks-cycling-corridors-over-next-three-years-500529722.html

CITY hall plans to spend $16.2 million over the next three years on sidewalks and cycling corridors.

A proposal for consideration at Tuesday’s public works committee states the administration is proposing to spend $5.4 million in each of the next three years— 2019, 2020, 2021— on new sidewalks, cycling corridors and programs to support cycling education.

The public works department has also listed 14 cycling and pedestrian-related infrastructure projects, with a total price tag of $74.5 million, that it wants to complete; no funding sources are identified.

The process for the projects approval was set in place in 2015 when council approved the award-winning Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies, which requires approval from the public works committee for individual pedestrian and cycling projects carried out each year before going to council.

While the projects are approved for a three-year period, council must authorize spending annually in the capital budgets. While civic departments have been preparing budget proposals since the spring, the new council is expected to begin review of the 2019 budget in January.

The cycling and pedestrian projects, identified in the initial 2015 strategy report, include new sidewalks on regional and local streets, new multi-use pathways, new cycling routes, crossing control improvements, public education programs and a series of awareness and promotion and partnership grants.

The administrative report says that if the approved projects come in under budget, or if additional funding is provided by Ottawa or the province, that money would be redirected to one or more of the other 14 projects — but only after the committee approves the spending.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca