A new bicycle lane is one part of a project to widen Padgett Road. Crews were putting the finishing touches on the project, which started in September, this week.
Powell River Regional District (PRRD) Electoral Area B Director Stan Gisborne said the project has been requested for many years. “In the 27 years I have resided on Padgett Road, I have seen horses struck and killed, vehicles in the ditch and pedestrians and bicycles forced off the road,” he said.
Although Padgett has the second greatest traffic flow in the PRRD, Gisborne said, traffic lanes are only 3.2 metres in width. Recommended BC lanes are at least 3.7 metres, he added. “In some areas, shoulders are not wide enough for a pedestrian and roadside ditches are up to six feet deep.”
In 2012, while researching eligible projects for the PRRD’s share of community works funds (federal gas tax refunds), directors met with Sunshine Coast Regional District officials and learned it was using gas tax funds to construct bicycle lanes in some electoral areas.
The PRRD then added $150,000 to its 2013 budget for the first stage of the Padgett project. “As bicycle lanes can cost as much as $250 per metre, I planned four stages with a bicycle lane or widening of Padgett,” Gisborne said.
The four phases are: Duncan Street to Myrtle Avenue; Myrtle to Valley Building Supplies; Valley Building Supplies to Daisy Road; Daisy to Maris Road.
In June, Gisborne said, he met with the area manager from the ministry of transportation and infrastructure (MOTI) and discovered that widening of Padgett was a priority and that there were some funds available. “It was decided that the best use of available funds for 2013 would be to widen the 1,460 metres of the southbound lane from Myrtle to Lot 5490, which is the last lot before Gunther Drive,” he said. “The northbound lane would be widened to allow a bicycle lane from Lot 5490 to Myrtle.”
In August, directors voted at a regional board meeting to approve an additional $11,000 in community works funds for the initial phase of the project. At the October 24 board meeting, directors passed another motion to approve the re-allotment of an additional $14,000 in community works funds to be transferred to the Padgett project as a contingency, to ensure the initial phase can be completed in its entirety.
While he was able to start the process, Gisborne said, the full credit for the new bicycle lane on Padgett goes to those who made it happen, especially the MOTI area manager for managing the project and accessing one third funding, Capilano Highway Services’s manager and crew for planning and constructing the road base, BA Blacktop’s manager and crew, who did “a great job of paving the area,” and the six other regional directors and the PRRD’s chief administrative officer who supported this use of gas tax money.
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