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A plan to spend $1.7 million on new segregated bike lanes along Confederation Boulevard near the U.S. Embassy was unanimously approved Wednesday by the city’s transportation committee.

The project will see concrete barriers on the east side of Mackenzie Avenue — installed along the roadway after the 9/11 attack — replaced with bollards, behind which segregated, bi-directional bike lanes will be built between Rideau and Murray streets.

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The new bikes lanes will connect to existing ones on Sussex Drive, St. Patrick Street, the Alexandra Bridge and the path along the east side of the Rideau Canal.

The National Capital Commission is slated to contribute $875,000 to the project; the city will pay $825,000. Those figures don’t include the cost of resurfacing of Mackenzie Avenue, or the cost of replacing the jersey barriers with bollards, which the NCC and U.S. Embassy will cover.

Installation of the new bollards and bike lanes is to be done in conjunction with road resurfacing on Mackenzie scheduled for 2016.

The plan will mean a loss of a dozen on-street parking spaces on the east side of Mackenzie and about $20,000 a year in revenue, the city says.

Council is to have the final say on the project when it is scheduled to meet on Nov. 12.

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com

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