BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The city has applied for state funds so that it can build a bike lane and 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the east side of Avery Road between Ohio 82 and Oakes Road.
The estimated cost of the project -- which would cover about 2,500 linear feet, or close to a half-mile -- is $1.6 million, city Engineer Gary Yelenosky told cleveland.com last week. The city hopes the state will contribute $488,750, or about 30 percent of the total cost.
“The road would be widened to accommodate striped, dedicated bike lanes,” Yelenosky told cleveland.com in an email.
The project would be part of a 13-year-old plan to create dedicated bike lanes on streets throughout town. The plan’s purpose is to provide residents living on the edges of town a way to ride to the city recreation center and the town commercial center at Ohio 82 and Broadview Road.
State funds for the Avery project would come from the Ohio Public Works Commission’s State Capital Improvement and/or Local Transportation Improvement programs.
If the city receives state funding, it would build the bike lanes and sidewalks next year, Yelenosky said.
Past efforts to fund the bike lane program have not always been successful. For example, in 2018, the city planned to add dedicated bike lanes on Avery from Harris Road south to a bridge over Chippewa Creek, and on Wallings Road between Broadview and the city’s eastern border.
Yelenosky said both of those projects didn’t move forward due to budgetary constraints.
A 2008 Broadview Heights ordinance mandated bike lanes in some areas, including Avery from Oakes past Ohio 82 to just beyond Harris Road in the north. Yelenosky said bike lanes on Avery north of Ohio 82, although delayed in 2018, are still in the planning stage.
Bike lanes were also mandated for:
· The entire lengths of Broadview, Wallings, Wyatt Road and Valley Parkway in Broadview Heights. Yelenosky said partial bike paths have been built on Broadview and the Cleveland Metroparks has finished a multipurpose trail on Valley Parkway. All other road segments are in the planning stage.
· A short section of Harris between Avery and Wyatt. This is also in the planning stage.
· Oakes from Avery to Broadview. Partial bike lanes have been installed here.
The 2008 ordinance said the city should also consider adding bike lanes to:
· Royalton Road from Interstate 77 to North Royalton. Yelenosky said a multimodal path was built from Ken Mar Industrial Parkway, just west of I-77, to Town Centre Drive, just east of Broadview Road.
· Harris from Wyatt east to Cranberry Ridge Drive. This is still in the planning stage.
· A short stretch of Oakes from Broadview east to Misty Oakes Drive. The city has installed a partial bike lane here, Yelenosky said.
· Akins Road from Broadview to North Royalton. This also is still in the planning stage.
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