The city is wrapping up a key step in a walking and cycling path, which will connect the north and south ends of Centretown.
The first phase of the project was completed last year and created a pathway between the Ottawa River and Young Street, near the Queensway.
According to Kornel Mucsi, project manager of the O-Train Pathway Project and expert in strategic transit planning, the development plan for the second phase of the pathway will be finalized sometime next week.
This will provide the city with a report necessary to begin the detailed design plan, which is the final step before the city can begin its construction.
Extending from where the previous phase left off, the second chunk of the pathway will run along the east side of the O-Train corridor until it reaches Carling Avenue. The final step, which is also being deliberated in the functional design plan, will connect the pathway to the Rideau Canal Western Pathway, next to Dows Lake.
It’s a route that has already seen much use as a gravel pathway, says Alex deVries, vice-president of the Citizens for Safe Cycling,, and community groups are excited to see the pathway will be paved and widened.
Lori Mellor, executive director of the Preston Street Business Improvement Area, says the new pathway will be a “solution for how to safely accommodate cyclists in the reconstructed Preston Street area.”