Editor's Note: This story has been edited to include updated costs to the city as the staff report included in the council package was outdated.
Timmins is getting more bike-friendly.
Bike lanes are being added to Jubilee Avenue and Theriault Boulevard. The $58,556-project approved by Timmins council Tuesday will mean changes to both roads.
Jubilee will go from four lanes down to two lanes with a centre turning lane between Theriault Boulevard and MacLean Drive to allow for dedicated bicycle lanes. Theriault Boulevard is already two lanes and wide enough to allow for the lanes. The only exception is the intersection at Ecole secondaire catholique Theriault where work needs to be done on the concrete curb and sidewalk to accommodate bike lanes.
The city is using $14,700 from the COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream to help cover the cost, which means the city is still on the hook for $43,857. The most costly item is $36,788 for thermal plastic symbols. The roadwork is expected to cost $20,000, the colour safe green paint markings $17,798, and signs are $3,970.
The change stems from a November presentation by Tatham Engineering representatives who talked about what a road diet could mean for drivers and cyclists.
The city has a cycling committee that is developing a Cycling Network Plan to link existing multi-use trails.
"The city administration’s been working on ideas that would create those linkages and this project is one that was one of the front runners,” said Pat Seguin, director of growth and infrastructure.
For the cycling master plan, he said the next step would be to bring it to council to decide what phases to develop. While a map of potential links exists, there are no hard costs for the work yet.
“A lot of the planning is based around trails and the trail system as well. But this part where Jubilee connects down to Theriault Boulevard was identified as an important part of the route as a collector for active transportation for youth to travel safely to school,” explained CAO Dave Landers.
The bike lanes on the roads will only be maintained in the summer months.
"A lot of the time with the amount of snow that we get we do need storage and right now we’re storing on an entire lane. I think for many of the days of the winter it would become storage,” said Seguin.
When it comes to linking to trails, Coun. Joe Campbell shared concerns about bike traffic being directed to the Gillies Lake trail, which he said was built for walking. He said there are serious near-misses on the trail with people racing around on bikes.
