Plans for a cycle lane through Blenheim will not be fast-tracked after a 12-year-old girl was seriously injured biking to school yesterday.
Jacqueline Wyatt is in Starship Hospital in a critical condition after she went under a truck on State Highway 1 near Duncannon Backpackers, just south of Blenheim.Bike Walk Marlborough co-ordinator Robin Dunn said construction of a 1.65 kilometre gravel cycle path which follows the rail corridor through Blenheim is expected to begin around March next year.
Mr Dunn is employed by the Marlborough District Council.
The cycle lane was in the design process and the project would be up for tender in the new year, he said.
Yesterday's crash involving the Riverlands School pupil would not speed up the planning process.
"We can't go any faster than what we are," he said.
"It's [the design process] well underway and if we tender the contract and they can start immediately then that [finishing earlier] may be a possibility."
The installation of the cycle lane was expected to take about two or three weeks.
Mr Dunn said the National Government had switched focus on its transport funding, making it less likely projects like the cycle path would get funding.
Marlborough roads manager Frank Porter said a council-funded cycleway would be to a much lower standard – gravel, not sealed – than if it received New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) funding. However, having the cycleway in place and being able to show the NZTA how many people were using it would likely help secure future funding, he said.
Mr Porter said he expected work on the cycle path, budgeted to cost about $700,000, to start early to middle 2011.
He could not comment on whether yesterday's crash would speed up the process or change the project's priority.
Bike Walk Marlborough former chairman Paul Millen said the deaths of five cyclists around the country this week and the incident yesterday would renew fears about cycle safety.
"There is a right for people on bikes to use the roads safely. Changing the attitudes of drivers is half the battle, the other half is road infrastructure."
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