50th Avenue trail in Bonnyville to be built on south side

Work could be starting shortly on a trail along 50th avenue from the 7-11 on Highway 659 to the Centennial Centre in Bonnyville, but will not be quite as planned.

The Town made a motion last Monday to do the work budgeted for the trail, which includes connecting sidewalks on the south side of 50th avenue, said Mayor Gene Sobolewski on The Morning After.

Originally, the project was going to be phased-in over two years on the north side of the road.

“We put money in the budget and we were looking at building the trail, the base portion of it, and leaving it gravel on the north side on that road and then the engineers came back and said, you already have an existing sidewalk for part of the way. There are crosswalks,” said Sobolewski.

“For the money we have budgeted, we could not only complete the trail, but we can also do the surfacing on it for the money [on the south side]. Council made the motion to use that approach.”

Town council decided in February to build a trail to limit safety hazards for those walking from each location.

The Town has interest in setting up a crosswalk and dropping the speed limit from 70km/h to 50km/h, but they need permission from Alberta Transportation.

The budget for the trail was $300,000, but the anticipated cost is expected to be well under.

“We’re hoping that the weather holds out that we can actually go and build it this year. We have some contractors. The administration is already looking at doing at a pre-qualification,” said Sobolewski.