Safety at night

Iron Horse Trail will be lit up at night thanks to new funding

KITCHENER — The popular Iron Horse Trail will be lit for the first time, under an expanded plan to improve the 20year-old trail.

Kitchener council had originally approved plans to spend $750,000 to widen and spruce up the busiest middle section of the trail, from Queen Street to Victoria Street.

But new outside funding has almost doubled that amount to $1.35 million, allowing the city to widen the trail and install lights along a section.

“It’s a big boost,” said Mark Parris, a landscape architect with the city.

“Since 1997, there have been some touch-ups here and there, but overall there hasn’t been any major improvements,” he said.

The extra funding will see lights go in along the stretch of trail from Queen to Victoria, and will see the trail widened from 2.6 -2.8 metres to 3.6 metres, improving a stretch of more than two kilometres of trail extending from Glasgow to Queen streets.

Getting lights on the trail was one of the key requests users said they’d like to see when the city held public consultations for the trail’s strategy.

The lights will help address safety concerns — a man was stabbed to death on the trail in 2010 — but will be especially useful for commuters and other trail users in fall and winter.

The Iron Horse Trail is the busiest, most popular off-road trail in the region. As many as 1,730 cyclists and walkers a day use the trail at peak periods, according to a 2015 study.

The extra $600,000 in funding came from the Region of Waterloo and the federal Public Transit Infrastructure Fund, as part of efforts to encourage “active transportation” such as cycling and walking.

Lighting that section of trail is expected to cost the city about $2,200 a year in electricity costs.

The work that was originally planned will create a more park-like feel to the Henry Sturm Greenway, a triangular parkette wedged between West Avenue and the trail. It will receive improved signage, a community garden, more benches and a wider footbridge over the creek.

The work is expected to start in September and take six to eight weeks.