Construction of a new bike lane along a section of West Saanich Road in North Saanich will begin soon.
The bike lane, which will eventually run south from Willingdon Road all the way to McTavish Road, will be completed in phases.
“The work on phase one should start in the next week or so,” said North Saanich Director of Infrastructure Services, Patrick O’Reilly. “That section will run south from Willingdon Road to the south entrance of Ocean Sciences.”
The contract to build the bike lanes was given to G&E Contracting through a request for proposals that saw four other companies come in with tenders at higher costs.
The total estimated cost from G&E in their tender was $223,365 plus HST and according O’Reilly, the availability of gas tax grants has so far allowed the project to be fully funded.
“The fact that we’re doing this in pieces means there’s more time to seek out grants,” O’Reilly explained. “My philosophy is to try and get as much of the costs covered through grants, so we are going to continue to apply for them and continue to roll out the other phases using grant money.”
O’Reilly noted that the project will take time but in the interim precautions will be taken to ensure a smooth transition between sections of road with bike lane and those without.
“It will be an orderly roll out,” he said.
Completion of the first phase of the bike lane is expected to take about two months.
