Red Hill to the Lake - New Pedestrian-Cycling connection

It is big money, $8 million, but it is a big job, and it looks to be well done. The structure is comfortable to use as a cyclist or pedestrian, and the lines are bold yet simple. 

Getting non-motorized traffic over the Queen Elizabeth Way to connect the Red Hill Valley trails to the waterfront trail on Lake Ontario required a bold initiative. Thankfully, the province of Ontario came through with the majority of funds to see this project to completion.

There were a surprising number of people using the waterfront trail on a Monday mid-day, where the lake was keeping the air cool, unlike places inland where it was much warmer. 

I suspect the city authorities will be adding trail signage to help direct people to the new bridge. There was still being work done to complete the connecting trails on the far side of the bridge.

Getting over highways

The Spec is reporting that work is beginning on a new Pedestrian/Cycling bridge over the Lincoln Alexander highway at Arbour Road, and the work is resuming on a larger ped/cycling span over the QEW highway, with both projects slated for completion this October. The paper further reports that:

The East Hamilton Recreational Trail Hub & Waterfront Link project also involves an accessible paved trail from Nash Road North to Brampton Street and the extension of the Red Hill Valley Trail from Barton Street to Brampton Street

Unfortunately, the links to the detailed project descriptions on the city cycling page are broken.

UPDATE: We alerted city staff and they have updated the links to the project descriptions mentioned above. Here are the new links:

• Arbour Road Pedestrian Bridge
• QEW Pedestrian Bridge

Check here for a site map of the Arbour Road bridge, or here for an earlier article with an artistic rendering of the bridge over the QEW.