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When the Mercier Bridge reopens later this month after an eight-week roadwork blitz, it will have a new dedicated bicycle path — which won’t be accessible to cyclists for several years.

That’s because the path starts from the South Shore and comes to an abrupt stop in the middle, where federal jurisdiction ends. It was built as part of work to replace the bridge’s deck on the federal portion. There are as yet no plans to continue the path on the provincial side of the bridge, nor are there current plans to link it to bike paths at the foot of the bridge on the South Shore side.

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At 2.5 metres wide, the two-lane bike path on the bridge’s west side will be separated from motorists by a concrete wall. The wall was built into the prefabricated concrete slabs that make up the new deck. The reasoning behind building the bike path is that the bridge won’t likely need a new deck for at least 75 years, so the federal bridge corporation wanted to ensure it could build a bike path now, while the deck was being replaced.