Article content

A crackdown is coming for cyclists riding through the construction zone atop the Groat Road Bridge, say City of Edmonton peace officers.

They’ll start handing out $100 fines this month.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Warnings over: Cyclists to get $100 fines for riding on Groat Road Bridge sidewalk Back to video

But that’s sure to inflame frustrations for those using the corridor to commute by bike. Getting off a bike to walk across the 325-metre stretch adds roughly four minutes to the journey.

Edmonton is in the first year of a three-year construction project to rehabilitate one of Edmonton’s key river crossings. But the work has narrowed the shared-use paths that both people walking and biking use to head north and south.

Traffic officials put in “Cyclist dismount” signs after several construction workers, including a former project manager, and other pedestrians were hit or narrowly missed, said Keith Scott, co-ordinator for the city’s community standards peace officers.

They reclassified the narrow shared-use path into a sidewalk, where city bylaws prohibit cycling. Then his officers set up six times over the past two months to hand out warnings.