Expect traffic changes in Duncan’s downtown core in the coming days as the city begins work to install protected bike lanes with concrete buffers along each side of Coronation Avenue.
CAO Peter de Verteuil told council at its meeting on April 16 that the first part of the project will be the construction of a new one-way traffic loop at the intersection of Queens Road and Ypres Street.
He said installing the one-way traffic loop will be dealt with first in order to improve the ease of construction and get people used to the new traffic flow.
“There will be significant signage posted while the traffic changes are introduced,” de Verteuil said. “The construction contractor will also be completing the short section of a watermain upgrade on Garden Street from Queens Road at the same time as the bike lanes project.”
The city has received approximately $960,000 from the BC Active Transportation Infrastructure Fund to move forward with the project, which is scheduled to be complete in June.
When complete, the bike lanes will create a major east-west cycling corridor across sections of the city where no major east-west connection currently exists.
The lanes will ensure cyclists can travel safely between the downtown core, through the Coronation neighbourhood, and to the commercial centre along the Trans-Canada Highway.
The project involves installing new, protected one-way bike lanes from the west side of the Trans-Canada Highway to Duncan Street on both sides of Coronation Avenue, Ypres Street, and Queens Road, as well as introducing the new one-way traffic loop for vehicle traffic between the Coronation/Ypres intersection, and along Queens Road west to the Duncan Street intersection.
Coronation Avenue will remain a two-way street, but westbound traffic towards downtown will no longer be permitted up Coronation hill past Ypres Street, and will instead be routed along Ypres Street and Queens Road towards Duncan Street and Canada Avenue.
