Sarnia eyes active transportation improvements in 2025

With a new London Line walking and bike pathway in place, the next challenge is connecting it to other active transportation infrastructure, Sarnia’s engineering general manager says.

With a new London Line walking and bike pathway in place, the next challenge is connecting it to other active transportation infrastructure, Sarnia’s engineering general manager says.

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Preliminary discussions have started with the Transportation Ministry about how to extend the recently completed path between Blackwell Side and Old London roads — just before the Highway 40 overpass — under the bridge, said David Jackson.

Doing so would help link the pathway to an east-west active transportation corridor through the city’s heart, made up of trails, pathways through hospital and school propertieslighted and raised crosswalks, and bike lanes, that currently runs from Lambton College in the east to the end of Maria Street near downtown, he said.

“The overall corridor. . . we are slowly working on (its) continuation out east,” and looking in the long term at making more connections downtown, he said.

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Sarnia recently eyed traffic-calming changes to Maria Street, to make it more welcoming to cyclists, but didn’t move ahead amid mostly negative responses from residents.

Changes that would have restricted some turns aren’t a critical component for the east-west corridor and Maria Street, which has no bike lanes, is still relatively quiet, Jackson said.

The London Line pathway, eyed for years, got the go-ahead in 2024 with about three-quarters of the $670,000 cost of the Sev-Con paving project funded by provincial and federal grants, Jackson said.

“That was a busy, fast road that had no sidewalks, no bicycle lanes or anything,” he said. “Over the years, we’ve received quite a few safety concerns because of that.”

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Challenges included working with private property owners and working around utilities, he said, before work wrapped up this fall.

Sarnia’s active transportation master plan calls for adding 106 kilometers of on-road cycling infrastructure and more sidewalks, pathways and trails.

It’s unclear how provincial bike lane legislation will affect future projects. Bill 212 requires municipalities to ask provincial permission to install bike lanes if doing so would remove a lane of vehicle traffic.

Sarnia attemptedly plans to extend a road diet and bike lanes introduced on Michigan Avenue in 2019, between Colborne Road and near Front Street, further east, as part of a Lambton County road rebuild between Colborne and Indian Road, Jackson said.

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Sarnia has budgeted $4 million for its share of the work, including sanitary and water main replacements and road repainting, he said. A report is expected for council consideration in January.

“It’s a significant project,” Jackson said, noting work likely would take most of the 2025 construction season.

Other active transportation work planned for 2025 includes design work for intersection improvements, working with Lambton County on plans for London Road near Christina Street, continuing a multi-use pathway between Murphy Road and Lansdowne Avenue — extending pathway paving completed in 2023 between Murphy Road and Finch Drive — and another pathway project on Barclay and Quinn drives, city ​​budget documents say.

Another part of the Confederation Street pathway, between Finch and Upper Canada drives, is expected to be completed by the ministry as part of Highway 40 improvements, Jackson said.

“We don’t know the exact timing of that, but hoping to see that implemented within the next couple of years,” he said.

Raised bike lanes on Wellington Street, between Queen and Front streets, also are planned, Jackson said, continuing a project that started between Brock and Queen streets this year.

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