A NEW cycleway in Islington is the next step in Newcastle council's ultimate goal of connecting the city's western suburbs of Minmi and Wallsend with the inner-city.
Newcastle council approved the bidirectional cycleway and shared path, which had overwhelming community support, at this week's meeting.
The 665-metre stretch will connect existing cycling infrastructure and provide a continuous, protected cycleway from the Scholey Street rail bridge in Mayfield through to Islington Park on to the city centre.
City of Newcastle transport and regulation executive manager Ryan Tranter said community feedback on the project had been extremely positive.
"City of Newcastle is committed to encouraging the uptake of active transport by providing safe, connected, convenient and comfortable infrastructure that will support people to choose cycling and walking as their preferred option for travel," he said.
"More than 90 per cent of people who made submissions during the community engagement process supported each aspect of the proposal."
Mr Tranter said the council was excited to deliver crucial infrastructure to a community of strong advocates for active transport.
"... especially parents, staff and students who walk, cycle, scoot and skate their way to and from Islington Public School and the Tighes Hill TAFE campus," he said.
"This project caters for all users of varying confidence and ability."
Construction is expected to start early next year. The project will be delivered by the council with $950,000 in funds from the state government.
Labor Cr Declan Clausen said it was great to see a huge amount of interest from the public.
"This will be a significant improvement to make cycling safer for some of our inner western suburbs of Newcastle, through Islington, right through the city centre," he said.
"It's really pleasing to see that network continue to grow, and I'm very appreciative of the support of the NSW Government and this grant funding to make it happen."
The project includes an on-road separated bidirectional cycleway with concrete separators along the north side of Chinchen Street between Linden Street and the east side of Styx Creek bridge.
It will also feature a shared path along Chinchen and Hubbard streets from Styx Creek bridge to John Hooker Street.
The new cycleway will have landscaped kerb extensions at the Linden Street intersection for improved visibility and separation of riders.
Connections will be built into the existing shared path at the Clyde Street traffic lights to provide a separated off-road option through the intersection.
A continuous path along Hubbard Street across John Hooker Street will give priority to shared path users over road users.
Greens Cr Charlotte McCabe said the goal was to help support less confident cyclists.
"We really want to encourage people to feel safe enough to get on their bikes for the first time if they have not been doing this previously, and so keeping those options for being off the road is extremely important," she said.
The Islington section will form a link in the council's 'On Our Bikes' Cycling Plan, which proposes the creation of cycling connections from the western suburbs of Minmi and Wallsend through to the inner-city.
The new cycleway will complement the $800,000 upgrade of the intersection of Chinchen and Clyde streets that was completed last year.
