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Last concrete pour for Hornby bike lane already?

October 31st, 2010 · 86 Comments

Doug sent me this photo and message about the (incendiary) Hornby bike lane today, which I’m posting somewhat against my better judgment, as every cycling post here seems to reignite the cyclical and never-resolved Hundred Years War.

About noon on Halloween day, the last concrete was poured for the separated Hornby St bikeway lane.  I happened to be passing by when I overheard the workers announcing it to one other… so I snapped this pic for you Francis.
 
Interesting that the lane extends to the very last block of Hornby at False Creek… obviously to tie in with both the Seawall bike path and the Aquabus bike ferry that crosses from Granville Island to the foot of Hornby.
 
Doug

I also was on Hornby today and saw planters starting to go in on top of the concrete dividers. I’m not surprised it’s finishing so quickly. I always thought when the original estimate of 10 weeks for construction was given that that was to paint the most dire scenario, so that anything less than that would look good.

BTW, if I can offer this information without negating any complaints about process or choice of street for the lane, I’ve had many people fume to me that pouring concrete is “proof” that the rabid Vision council is installing these lanes permanently.  (It all seems to be part of a lot of pent-up rage about the new bike lanes in general, which inevitably come up as the first item people mention when I ask them what they don’t like about the Vision Vancouver council. And even when I don’t.)

So I asked the city’s head of engineering, Peter Judd, recently why the city didn’t just put in concrete barriers or something more temporary.

He said it was because one of the main complaints they had from businesses along Hornby and Dunsmuir — you know, the people the city is trying to keep happy — is that they didn’t want something ugly on the street like the concrete barriers they saw on Burrard Bridge and the Dunsmuir Viaduct. Thus the poured concrete curbs with planters.

Apparently those curbs can be chipped off with a backhoe in no time at all, while the planters, which are all plastic, can always be picked up and moved anywhere else they’re needed.

One question answered. Several dozen more to go.

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