City of Edmonton plans to fill 100 kilometres of missing sidewalks
Global News
Now that the weather is warmer in Edmonton more people are getting outdoors. But when it comes accessing certain walkways and paths, people are cut off.
Now that the weather is warmer in Edmonton, more people are getting outdoors.
But when it comes accessing certain walkways and paths, people are cut off.
Marjorie Hooker often walks along 109 St. to get to 61 Ave. in south Edmonton and is one of them.
“We have no access to it other than risk our own health walking that path,” Hooker said.
A stretch of partial sidewalk along 109 St. is one of many sidewalks in Edmonton that just ends, cutting off access for pedestrians.
“In some places there’s a lack of sidewalks. It’s what we call missing links — where there’s very key points that aren’t connected by sidewalk or shared use paths or a bike lane and it kind of makes it harder for people to get where they need to go,” Paths for People vice chair Daniel Morin said.
The city amended its capital budget to include funding to fill in missing sidewalks and paths. The goal is to improve accessibility and safety.
“With the pandemic and people not going on holidays to Mexico or somewhere else, they’re staying home and they are going exploring and in the process they are identifying gaps and they are saying we need to do better. So as a council we said we hear you, we’re putting $5 million towards 100 kilometers of fixes. Let’s get started,” Ward Papastew Councillor Michael Janz said.