Work on city cycle route begins
Work to provide a safe cycle route from the Inverness Campus at Beechwood to the City Centre has begun.
In January Councillors approved £250,000 for the Millburn Road Cycle Project with the money coming from the Council’s capital programme for Carbon CLEVER projects. Other funding for the £733,000 project comes from a number of sources including the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Sustrans, HITRANS, as well as contributions from developers through planning consents.
Once completed the route will form part of the proposed link from the new Inverness Campus and the recently constructed A9 overbridge in the East, through Raigmore Housing Estate to Millburn Road, where it would continue to the city centre. The contractor undertaking the work is Coffey Construction.
Convenor of The Highland Council, and Millburn Ward Councillor Jimmy Gray said: “I’m delighted to see work has started on what will be an important access route for both cyclists and pedestrians to get into and out of the heart of the city. It’s designed to provide a safe environment which I hope will encourage more people to consider active travel as an alternative to car travel. As well as reducing congestion, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, there and the important extra health and wellbeing benefits to consider.”
Every effort will be made to keep the traffic flowing on Millburn Road throughout the 18 week contract. The works will not involve the extensive use of traffic lights and therefore one lane in both directions will be available at all times. This should ensure that although the journey times will be a little longer, traffic will keep flowing.
The Inverness City Leader, who is also a Councillor for the Millburn Ward, Councillor Ian Brown said: “The Council is working towards reducing the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases which are being released into the atmosphere through the Carbon CLEVER initiative and the target is to have a carbon neutral Inverness in a low carbon Highlands by the year 2025.”
Leader of The Highland Council, Councillor Drew Hendry added: “Creating the Millburn Road Active Travel Corridor is key to achieving this ambitious target that will result in many benefits including less air pollution, a healthier population, more accessible services, stimulated growth and improved infrastructure for our city.”
Next week work to install cycle lockers and electrical charging points for the Carbon CLEVER cycles project will begin at the Council’s Headquarters on Glenurquhart Road and at Falcon Square. Carbon CLEVER Cycles is a collaborative pilot project between The Highland Council, SSE and Co-Wheels Car Club, which will deliver 12 electric bikes for hire in Inverness. The scheme is due to be launched on 18 August.
ENDS