A local cycling blog, the Alderblob, has pointed to an article in a local paper, the Beach Riverdale Mirror that a bike lane will be included in the reconstruction of the Dundas St. bridge over the Don River. City to complete missing link for cyclists: Single bike lane planned for Dundas Street bridge. The Alderblob points out that this together with completing the Dundas East bike lane from Broadview to River will complete the connection to the River Street and the Shuter Bike Lanes creating a contiuous bike lane from Kingston Road to Yonge St.

The realization of this goal looks to have been the result of Councillors convincing staff to make some last minute changes in project plans. Initially bike lanes were not listed as being included in this project in documents outlining 2007 road reconstruction projects. Bike lanes on Dundas were also not included in the list of bike lane projects that the City of Toronto had displayed at its July 26th, 2007 Bike Plan consultation session. The article in the Mirror states that there will only be a bike lane in one direction over the Dundas Bridge, westbound. This is likely due to the constraints imposed by the original reconstruction design for the bridge. Incorporating the bike lanes earlier in the design process probably would have resulted in a better solution, however, getting the one bike lane in addresses a missing link in Toronto's Bikeway Network and having their plans changed mid-project should serve as a message to those responsible for road reconstruction planning that bike lanes should be included from the start. The article does state that other ideas are being looked at for eastbound cyclists in future, such as a cycling pedestrian bridge over the Don River.

The Alderblob recognizes Works Committee Chair, Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre) as being instrumental in getting this change in place. I had also brought this issue up with Councillor Adrian Heaps (Ward 35 Scarborough Southwest) earlier in the year and he assured me that the project would be changed to get bike lanes in. I admit I was skeptical at the time. The construction was already underway at that point. However it seems that they got it in. Congratulations to Councillors De Baeremaeker and Heaps as well as the staff involved for their work in addressing this oversight in road reconstruction planning. Hopefully we will hear more good news regarding the other 2007 reconstruction projects listed in the previous article and that the 2008 Road reconstruction project list will have the bike lane projects included from the start.