An Edmonton bike lane crumbles 1 month after construction

A concrete divider separating a bike lane from the road sits cracked and crumbling in places, just one month after installation in northeast Edmonton’s Hermitage area.

“Within a few days of them putting it in, half of the pylons were down, ripped out. Four of five places the concrete’s broken,” Anita Doonan said.

Doonan lives in the area and has cycled on the bike lane off Hermitage Road.

Several large chunks are missing along a stretch of 40th Street. The rebar is exposed in some places and tire tracks are visible crossing the concrete.

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“The broken concrete was left in the bike lanes for us to try and ride around,” Doonan said.

Some of her neighbours also take issue with the new feature, which the City of Edmonton said was installed in August.

“I hardly see anyone on the bike lane, maybe one or two at the most,” Richard Wong said. “All I see is people on the sidewalk.”

“Some people are having trouble driving around because they’re not used to it,” said Narjara Martinez.

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The city did not elaborate on what caused the damage.

“The project team has assessed the damage and have added these curbs to our schedule for repair/replacement,” City of Edmonton safe mobility director Jessica Lamarre told Global News in a statement.

“This assessment determined that the condition of the curbs do not present any immediate hazards to road users.”

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi says he’s not familiar with this situation, but will be following up.

“We will definitely raise that with our infrastructure folks who build and monitor infrastructure, including bike lanes,” Sohi said.

The city says repair or replacement costs are factored into the overall project cost and shouldn’t be too expensive.

But people in the area worry if drivers are causing the damage, the fixes could soon need their own fixes.

“It’s going to be a constant repair to keep it the way it is,” Doonan said.

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