The Heysen Street Link bike path will be extended to Woden Town Centre. Good news, after years of delays. The scope of projects may shrink after a grand vision, but Heysen Street Link has grown to something more. A happy end.
Heysen Street Link
Heysen Street shortens the ride from the new suburbs in Molonglo Valley / Weston Creek and Woden Valley. The road was of a “rural road standard” and a death trap for cyclists.
Heysen Street Link benefited from the 2020 Fast Track program. Heysen Street Link was slow to move forward but now has funding all the way to Woden.
- Status update 11 October 2020: under construction.
- Progress: currently still in an early stage of construction.
- Visual appearance: The area is fenced off along its entire length and Heysen Street is closed for traffic.
Construction in 3 stages
The funding comes from different pots but should produce a route from Weston to Woden Town Centre.
Heysen Street Link, ACT Government, 12/10/2020
Stage One
- Type: off-road shared path
- Where: from the intersection of Devonport Street and Derwent Street, through the Oakey Hill Nature Reserve, along Heysen Street, ending at its intersection with Hilder Street.
- Construction: August 2020 to late 2020
- Funding: ACT Government $1.2 million
Stage Two
- Type: off-road shared path
- Where: from the underpass near the Lyons shops, along Launceston Street to Burnie Street.
- Construction: late 2020 to early 2021
- Funding: ACT Government’s Fast Track Program.
Stage Three
- Type: on-road protected cycle path
- Where: along Devonport Street between Derwent Street and the Lyons shops.
- Construction: early 2021 to mid 2021
- Funding: Federal Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program.
Work in progress
Heysen Street has been closed for the period of construction and the bus service along this street has been temporarily suspended.
Weston end
Lyons end
Missing links
Missing links describes gaps in the cycling network, and those gaps can be quite short. Adding another 100 m of path, connecting two other bike paths, makes a network. Without this short link, a cyclist may need to ride a much great distance.
Filling the gap and building a cycling path to form a network does not need to be expensive and it is very worthwhile. The value of fixing the missing link far exceeds the construction costs as it makes the whole path network more attractive to cyclists.
ACT Labor promised to build several missing links at the 2016 ACT Election. There are many missing links in the ACT cycling network.
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