Ped/bike bridge will be built over the Northeast Pioneers Greenway
Lukes is elated by the move
CJOB News Team
A pedestrian/bike bridge has been added to a 90-million dollar project announced last July...to extend the Chief Peguis Trail to Lagimodiere.
Winnipeg Trails Co-ordinator Janice Lukes couldn't be happier.
Lukes told CJOB the addition of the "flyover" is a brilliant move.
Planners were able to find money within the existing budget to accommodate the pedestrian/bike bridge.
Pedestrian bridge for Chief Peguis Trail
(see the sidebar in the Free Press main story)
Winnipeg Free Press, Bartley Kives
A bike-and-pedestrian bridge has been added to the Chief Peguis Trail extension without increasing the council-approved $110-million project cost, North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty announced Thursday.
In July, city council voted to increase the scope of the Chief Peguis public-private partnership to allow the construction of an underpass at Rothesay Avenue, as area residents feared an intersection at Rothesay might endanger pedestrians.
At the same meeting, the Winnipeg Trails Association appeared before council to request a pedestrian bridge at the Northeast Pioneers Greenway, which runs parallel to Raleigh Street and Gateway Road. WTA director Janice Lukes said an intersection with the bicycle-commuter route would also be dangerous.
DBF2, the construction consortium responsible for the project, came up with a way to add the bridge without increasing costs, Browaty said.
"They were able to find a little more value with other aspects of the project," he said. "Everybody appreciated the Northeast Pioneers Greenway is a well-used amenity."
Chief Peguis Trail is being extended east from Henderson Highway to Lagimodiere Boulevard. The city hopes to extend it west from Main Street to McPhillips Street in the coming decades as part of an effort to complete an inner ring road.