The City of Charlottetown will soon be creating more paved pathways to encourage active transportation.
A request for proposals has been issued on a project the city had intended to do last year.
The initial tender called for an asphalt walkway construction project that would see four streets in the city get wide pathways.
The new tender will take care of three of those four streets since one of them — MacRae Drive, from Livingstone Drive to Parent Street — has already been done as part of the original project.
“We did up a tender for the four of them. MacRae Drive wasn’t an issue to put in, (but) the other three needed some engineering design (and were delayed),’’ said Coun. Terry Bernard, chairman of the public works committee. “W e withdrew the other three and we got the engineering design (done).’’
The other three streets are Greensview Drive, from Kensington Road to Days Lane (essentially the length of the road); Riverridge Drive, from Acadia Drive to Long Boat Drive; and, Long Boat Drive to Acadian Drive.
Bernard said those three streets had extra issues that needed to be addressed — such as the presence of catch basins, telephone poles and wires that had to be moved — thus the delay.
Now, the engineering work is done, and the project is ready to go to tender again.
One of the more popular and well known of these pathways already exists by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, stretching from Acadian Drive, down Murchison Lane, through the woods, along the water by the hospital and out onto Riverside Drive.
These multi-purpose pathways are designed for pedestrians but are wide enough to also accommodate cyclists, rollerbladers and strollers.
“They certainly seem to be popular. They are nice and wide and you can use them for any active transportation. People love them.’’
Bernard said the city may add to its paved pathway system in the future but not on this tender.
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