The City's Department of Transportation and Engineering (DOTE) will select one of the projects before submitting its application by the Apr. 12 deadline.
If DOTE selects the cycle track, it will seek a $500,000 grant to construct a physically-separated bike lane along 3.4 miles of Central Parkway, from Ludlow Avenue to W Liberty Street.
If it selects the shared-use path project, it will seek a $300,000 grant to construct a shared-use bike-hike path along Martin Luther King Drive, from Clifton Avenue to Woodside Drive, and Jefferson Avenue, from W University Avenue to Calhoun Street. These segments would connect to existing paths on Martin Luther King Drive, from Woodside Drive to Jefferson Avenue, and on Jefferson Avenue, from W University Avenue to Nixon Street.
Project costs are estimated at roughly $750,000 and $300,000, respectively. Funding is expected to be available in July 2013.
Both projects are currently in preliminary design, and meetings with community councils are likely to be held later this month, said DOTE Senior City Planner Mel McVay.
"To be clear, there is no doubt in my mind that this [cycle track] project could be ready to go in time to meet all OKI deadlines," she said. "Our goal is to start construction in spring of 2014."
The shared-use path likely wouldn't begin construction until summer 2014 when there is less pedestrian traffic on UC's campus, McVay said.
In 2015, that path will be extended from Clifton Avenue to Hopple Street as part of the West MLK Street Improvement Project.
Images courtesy of City of Cincinnati DOTE; OpenStreetMap, CC-by-SA 2.0
Previous reading on BC:
City issues bike share RFP; OKI updating route guide (2/4/13)
Kennedy Heights bike lanes in limbo (12/21/12)
Bike share plan could come next month, launch next summer (8/2/12)
Bike shelter, sharing input wanted (7/16/12)
Preferred alternative unveiled for W MLK road project (2/7/11)
