Council votes to examine expediting Dougall Avenue cycling tunnel

Windsor city council wants to know how it can move more quickly to create a pedestrian and bike tunnel under the CN rail tracks where they cross Dougall Avenue.

City engineer Mark Winterton told council the tunnel was at least three years out during a debate on whether interim measures should be taken to accommodate cyclists.

A motion to implement the measures was defeated but Coun. Hilary Payne's motion to accelerate the process passed through.

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"Let's do it more quickly since there's such a demand apparently for pedestrian and cycling traffic to go that route," he said. "But not using the existing pavements that's just plain unsafe."

Payne wants to see the tunnel completed in 2018. Winterton says it is possible as long as all the parties, including CN agree to the plans.

"It would be very, very aggressive to be under construction in 2018," Winterton said. "If all the parties are willing we're going to to do what we can to expedite this project."

The move came after council heard from Stephen Pitman and Jennifer Escott from Bike Windsor-Essex.

They approached city council to convince it to go ahead with the short term measures but were happy with the outcome.

"I think we have some really progressive councillors that want to see more cyclists and want to see active transportation as a priority in the city," Pitman said.