Summerside to connect city with $1M walking, cycling route

The City of Summerside announced a new $1 million active transportation route Friday.

The lane will connect the north and south ends of the city for walkers and cyclists. City of Summerside director of community services JP Desrosiers says the announcement is the first phase of Summerside's active transportation plan.

"There's been a number of people in our community who have asked us to start considering safer modes of active transportation in our city," he said.

"We were already doing construction work at the corner of Pope Road and Greenwood, so it made some sense to start with this project, do some lane-widening, and connect what we call St. Eleanors with the downtown and the Credit Union Place."

The new lane will run from Pope Road to the waterfront and is about 1 kilometre long.

Ready for mid-October

Desrosiers said the city is now considering options for phase two of their infrastructure plan. Some concepts include paving and lighting the Confederation Trail that runs through the city and adding another lane along Pope Road.

He said the city also already has roads that are friendly to walkers and cyclists, to which it hopes to add signs and road paint.

The $1 million project is already under construction and was split between the municipality and the province's active transportation fund each contributing $500,000.

Desrosiers said the route will hopefully be open for use by mid-October.

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