The city will likely soon be seeking a firm to build a long-desired Shore Line Drive bikeway that staffers say will offer a safer route and bay views to cyclists traversing a 1.8-mile stretch of the Island.

The City Council is scheduled on Tuesday to consider approving plans for the project and authorizing a call for bids to build it. Construction is expected to begin in July and take 60 working days.

The city will pay about a half million dollars toward the $971,800 project, with most of the rest of the tab to be covered by a federal grant. Money from the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission will cover the remaining $46,400 of the project’s cost.

The two-way bikeway will start on Broadway near Bayview Drive and will stretch the entire length of Shore Line Drive, terminating on Westline and Otis drives. The bike-only track will be installed in roadway lanes that now hold moving and parked cars.

Parking along the bikeway route will be reduced from 617 spaces to 431 spaces, according to a staff report to the council for Tuesday’s meeting. But apartment dwellers living along the route will get an additional 105 24-hour spaces, it says, and the number of spaces for disabled drivers will double to four.

The project was first included in the city’s 1974 bicycle plan, a presentation to be given to the council on Tuesday says. The city’s plan prioritize bicycle travel on the streets where the bikeway – which will be separated from street traffic and a shared path along the city’s Shore Line beach – is to be built.

The city won a federal grant for the project in 2011 and solicited community input on what should be built a year later. The Transportation Commission okayed revised plans for the bikeway in December and additional changes in January.

In their report, city staffers say the project will provide more and safer options for cyclists, will reduce conflicts on the multi-use shoreline path and slow down drivers.

Bike Walk Alameda president Lucy Gigli called the planned bikeway project a “great example” of a “complete street” that offers equal access to people using multiple modes of transportation.

“We envision the new corridor to be a model for other important Alameda corridors and an element in transportation programs to reduce single occupancy vehicle use as is being pursued at Alameda Point,” Gigli said, referring to plans to try to reduce anticipated vehicle traffic from businesses by 30 percent and by 10 percent for other trips.

In addition to providing a dedicated path for cyclists that’s separate from car traffic and what will now be a shoreline pedestrian path, the redesigned streets will offer bus landing areas and shelters for riders, an upgrade over the amenity-free stops available now. And she said the car travel and parking needs of drivers were also assessed and factored in to the proposed changes.

Gigli said a similar road rearrangement – the 2008 creation of a Fernside Boulevard cycle track between Otis Drive and San Jose Avenue – “worked beautifully,” allowing students to comfortably and safely bike, walk or travel by car to and from school.