By Steve Hubrecht
[email protected]
The long sidewalk-less stretch of 13th Avenue that currently sees bikers, joggers, walkers and other pedestrians make their way along a painted path that is really just a part of the road may soon have its own dedicated, separate paved pathway.
The lack of a path or sidewalk in the area has, in the past year or so, elicited a few comments from local residents, who have pointed out to the Pioneer that ever since the Markin-MacPhail Westside Legacy Trail was functionally completed more than a year ago, bikers and runners heading between Invermere and Fairmont have a dedicated separate pathway almost the whole way, with the glaring exception of 13th Avenue heading south out off Invermere.
Screenshot of visual presented to Invermere council showing a concept designed for the planned new multi-use path along the west side of 13th Avenue from J.A. Laird Elementary School almost to the turn off to the back parking lot for Eileen Madson Primary School
While these complaints are not 100 per cent accurate — there are two short stretches where the Westside Legacy Trail currently runs along Westside Road, although that will likely change in the near future — they do underscore that an increasing number of people are running or biking along 13th Avenue headed to or from the Westside Legacy Trail, that children attending Eileen Madson Primary School (EMP) often walk and bike along that part of 13th, and that creating a separate path for them would improve safety.
District of Invermere staff have seized on sewer and infrastructure upgrades on 13th Avenue (the first part of which is happening this fall, the rest of which are scheduled to occur in the next few years) as a great opportunity to build such an amenity and are now planning a 550 metre multi-use trail along 13th from J.A. Laird Elementary School to Gierlich Road (in other words close to, but not quite all the way to, the turn off on John Woods Road that many students use to access the EMP ‘back door’).
The project is grant dependant, and Invermere council gave its blessing to staff, during its most recent meeting, to commit $252,000 to the trail, which allows staff to apply for a provincial grant of a further $500,000. The trial has an estimated price tag of more than $750,000 and would fit into other trails in the district connecting downtown Invermere with the Westside Legacy Trail. In a briefing, district staff pointed out that the existing pedestrian corridor is merely an asphalt extension of the roadway. There is no barrier or separation between the road and the path.
Work will include removing the existing asphalt, realigning the trail to create physical separation from the road, paving the new trail, creating a landscaped median buffer, and putting in trail-driveway crossings. A permanent rainbow pedestrian crosswalk is also envisioned as part of the project.
