Golden Valley Postpones Decision on Bike Lane Project
Golden Valley is taking steps to become a more bicycle-friendly city. But residents hoping for new bike lanes will not see any major changes until at least next year.
The Golden Valley City Council was supposed to award a bid on the project at Tuesday night’s meeting. Now, residents will now have to wait a little while longer.
“Unfortunately the bids came in high,” said Marc Nevinski, Golden Valley’s physical development director. “I think we spent a fair amount of time working and reworking and it just got late in the season. So we will work to expand our project for next year, include this work in next year’s work, and hopefully come in under budget and get better pricing.”
Waiting Until Spring
Golden Valley had budgeted $325,000 to restripe roads and install bike lanes. However, the lowest bid came in at $332,000. Rather than going over budget, the city council decided to table the decision and revisit the issue next spring.
Meanwhile, the decision to install bike lanes was the result of several years of community input.
“What we’re doing is basically, we’re affirming in a sense what bikers are already doing,” said Golden Valley Mayor Shep Harris. “We’re not diverting additional traffic. We’re not encouraging additional traffic. What we’re just doing is, in a sense, is we’re kind of responding to an evolution of more active community members who are getting out on their bikes. And they’re using certain areas, whether it’s Wayzata Boulevard or Golden Valley Road or Olympia Street.”
The intersection of Golden Valley Road and Pennsylvania Avenue is one of four intersections where Golden Valley officials plan to install bike lanes. At some point in the near future, a bike lane will start at that intersection and extend east to Douglas Drive.
Harris said that the city isn’t planning to expand the roads because cars have a lot of maneuvering space in their current design. When the city adds the bike lanes, Harris says drivers shouldn’t feel pinched.
For more information on the bike lane project, go to Golden Valley’s website.
