• Funding for final design approved; 11 miles of bike infrastructure is part of a wider overhaul

VICTORVILLE — The City Council signed off this week on funding the final design for the $4.4 million Mojave Riverwalk project, an 11.1-mile, two-area mixture of bike paths and lanes with a trailhead ending near Victor Valley College.

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A 4-mile portion of the project will be a bike path that begins near Bear Valley and Fish Hatchery roads, continues on top of the flood control levee to the Yucca Loma Bridge, passes under the bridge, parallels Yates Road on the north shoulder and continues to the Mojave Narrows Regional Park entrance, city officials say. A nearly 1-mile-long and 10-foot-wide path extending into the park from Yates Road will boast a turnaround loop.

“A trailhead parking lot, interpretive signs and a shade structure will be constructed at VVC,” according to a city staff report. “The Mojave Riverwalk Path will connect to a bicycle path that will be constructed on the north side of Bear Valley Road, the bicycle path on the south side of the Yucca Loma Bridge and bike lanes on the widened Yates Road.”

Meanwhile, the second and larger 7.1-mile portion of the project’s scope will be a bike lane loop connecting through Old Town to a bike path already at the Mojave River.

“Area 2 includes Hesperia Road from Green Tree Boulevard to Forrest Street, Sixth Street, C Street, Fourth Street, the Transportation Center, Sixth Street and to the Mojave River Levee,” the report said. “Green Tree Boulevard and Seventh Street complete the bike lane loop with Hesperia Road.”

The Riverwalk project, combined with a separate five-year, $12 million plan to install about 44 centerline miles of bikeways throughout the city, has underscored the city’s ambitions to at last boost its bicycle infrastructure.

Almost all the roads where bike lanes are planned within the 44-mile initiative also will include a pavement rehabilitation element, seen as a win-win, with bike-lane specific local transportation funds covering about 15 percent of the costs.

As for the Riverwalk plan, City Manager Doug Robertson said Tuesday that “a portion of this project is on existing city streets, most of which are already in good condition.”

Source: Shea Johnson, Daily Press