Grosse Pointe Bike Route Under Review by Engineer

A map as tweaked by officials from all five of the Grosse Pointes is under review by a traffic engineer–inching the project that began as an idea about two years ago forward.

City Manager Al Fincham said a new version of the map was determined by city officials from all of the Grosse Pointes and then City Manager Shane Reeside submitted it to the engineer last week.

The map containing the proposed route is not yet being released as it may change again based on the recommendations of the engineer, Fincham said.

Representatives from all of the cities have been meeting regularly about the bike routes and have contributed to discussions about how to best link each city's route to make it one continuous path, Fincham said. 

The bike paths have been an initiative of the 's Live Well Grosse Pointe campaign. A committee representing that campaign had been trying to work with city officials to get the project moving but –a fact that was revealed during their most recent public forum in May. 

Fincham said all of the cities have been participating well and working together to move the project forward. While the city administrators and public safety directors have contributed to developing a route they believe to be safe and useful, ultimately the plan still has to have approval of all five Grosse Pointe city councils, Fincham said. 

Wayne County Commissioner Tim Killeen secured $70,000 from the Wayne County Parks and Recreation Division to pay for the bike lane markings and signs. That money must be used by Sept. 30, 2012. 

Fincham said an exact timeline hasn't been determined for the project but the necessary steps are being taken to get it to completion. It shouldn't be a problem to get the project finished within the time limit of the money, he said.