A plan by Vancouver’s ABC party to remove a temporary, pandemic-era bike lane from Stanley Park over the winter and install a permanent replacement by spring is hitting a snag.
A staff memo with preliminary estimates on the cost and a timeline for how long it will take to remove the temporary bike lane makes Tom Digby, the only Green party park board commissioner, think it could take much longer, even years, before a new bike lane could be in place.
The cost of removing the temporary bike lane will be about $400,000 and the earliest it could be dismantled is April, according to a memo sent to Vancouver park board commissioners last week.
The park board, in which Digby is the only non-ABC commissioner, had already voted to immediately dismantle the cycling route, which was started during the COVID-19 pandemic. It had asked staff for a plan to create a permanent, bike lane that is less disruptive to car and other traffic by February.
“It should be noted that, irrespective of the procurement and construction timeline, permanent line painting cannot be done in wet weather or colder temperatures, and while it is the last piece of work in the construction sequencing, it is typically not possible until April at the earliest,” wrote Donnie Rosa, the park board’s general manager.
“I’m going to seriously ask my ABC commissioner colleagues to reconsider removing the entire bike lane,” said Digby. “At this rate, we will not be seeing a permanent bike lane for two or three summers.”
Digby said it will be about finding the money and that could take a long time as there are also other regular demands on the budget.
“We might be able to save some money by preserving parts of the interior bike lanes that are not causing a problem for anyone. For example, the segment going up the hill to Prospect Point. There’s never been a traffic jam there and the horse and carriage don’t go there.”
The budget includes removing traffic cones, road signage, concrete barriers and temporary asphalt. The preliminary cost estimate includes traffic management for all the work.
The first phase of taking down the bike lane has already started and is to be done by Dec. 23 and cost $25,000.
“Approximately 27 new interim signs will be required for Phase 1 to ensure that vehicles merge into a single lane for those small segments where the bike lane will remain until it can be fully removed as part of the future phase,” wrote Rosa.
The most expensive part of the removal seems to be the “supervision and co-ordination of removal of 830 concrete low barriers and transporting and storing off-site.”
About $100,000 to $120,00, or about 25 per cent of the budget, is earmarked for this stage.
The removal will be funded from the city’s capital plan out of accounts dedicated for permanent cycling infrastructure and will cost between $375,000 to $425,000, according to the memo.
The cost of installing the temporary bike lane in 2021 was $750,000.
