New Grant Avenue bike lanes to serve Ogden cyclists until larger project comes
OGDEN — Ogden officials want Grant Avenue to serve as one of the city’s signature streets — a multipurpose corridor that promotes active transportation and connects the Ogden River to downtown.
But until the city can identify funding for a project that would extend the Grant Avenue Promenade two streets to the north and three streets to the south, more cost effective measures are being implemented.
The city repainted Grant near the Ogden River late last week, adding bicycle lanes on both sides of the street. Ogden engineer Justin Anderson said the city hopes the new bike lanes will improve general connectivity in the city, but more specifically, provide a stop-gap solution for cyclists traveling between the river and downtown.
“We wanted to do something that would improve connectivity immediately,” Anderson said. “And this was it. Ideally, we want to get the Promenade project finished, but this was an inexpensive project we could do now.”
Extending the Grant Avenue Promenade has been identified in the city’s bicycle master plan, but at $6.5 million, it won’t be cheap.
In the summer of 2014, the city redesigned Grant between 20th and 22nd streets. The road was separated into three portions, with large, protected bike lanes added to each side of the vehicle corridor. Islands featuring large trees and flowers were also built into the road, and sidewalks in the area were improved.
The section of road has decorative intersections, new street lights, a new traffic signal system and a reduced 20 mph speed limit. There is no on-street parking on the road, save for a few loading and unloading zones designed for quick stops.
The $6.5 million extension project would push the existing design south to 25th Street and north to 18th Street.
“That’s eventually what we want to do,” Anderson said. “There’s a lot of redevelopment and new activity in that area.”
In the past few years, several new high-end housing complexes have gone up along Grant near the river, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints completed a total reconstruction of the Ogden temple.
- RELATED: New riverside Ogden apartments give ‘downtown living’ experience
- RELATED: Ogden braces for LDS temple crowds
Clint Watson, director of the Ogden Bicycle Collective, said he hopes Ogden will aggressively pursue completing projects identified in the cycling master plan, like the Promenade extension, but pointed out smaller measures are needed too.
“We hope the (master plan project) continues and those projects get funded,” he said. “But any kind of cycling-specific infrastructure, we’re big proponents for that.”
You can reach reporter Mitch Shaw at mishaw@standard.net or at 801-625-4233. Follow him on Twitter at @mitchshaw23 or like him on Facebook