After the opening of the Bear Valley Road bike path, I reached out to Richard Berger and Kathie Martin at the Town of Apple Valley for more information. This is what I received from Kathie Martin:
Q: What are the phases of this project?
The project was initially proposed with three segments: However, the cost of the project made all three segments prohibitive. SBCTA (formerly SANBAG) authorized the use of grant funds to construct segment 1 and a portion of segment 2. (Phase 1)
Q: What are the sections of this project?
Segment 1 is from Reata to Jess Ranch and segment 2 is from the western terminus of the Bear Valley Bridge to Fish Hatchery. Segment 3 would take the pathway from Fish Hatchery to the upper campus of VVC.
Q: How much new bike path was actually installed?
Segment 1 consisted of approximately 1,055 linear feet of new concrete bikeway, and segment 2 resulted in an additional 775 lf. of asphalt path.
Q: What was the total cost of this new bike path?
Construction costs were $393,973.63 and design was $76,600 (for all segments).
Q: What was the Town’s contribution toward this total cost?
The Town is receiving reimbursement of $386,370 from SBCTA, and Victorville has agreed to pay a shared portion of the design cost making the final construction cost to the Town approximately $34,000.
Q: Is there a tentative schedule for future phases and sections?
The plans and specifications for the project have been forwarded to the City of Victorville. They have informed us that they intend to apply for additional grant funding to construct phase 3.
Q: An extension to the bike path extension up Mojave Fish Hatchery Road appeared on some of the earlier maps, but was not there as of two weeks ago. Has that section been delegated to Victorville now?
I was just looking at the bid package for the full project, and it shows the last segment going from Fish Hatchery westerly toward the upper campus. It isn’t contiguous with BV Road, though. It cuts across the hill towards the PAC parking lot. A retaining wall would be necessary because of the hill, and that increased the expected costs. We did show a sidewalk going a short ways up FH, which wasn’t done, but there wasn’t a bike path segment in that direction. At least not in the bid packet. There may have been in some early concept. But either way, anything more will be under Victorville’s direction.
Q: Any plans or speculation about redoing the Bear Valley Road bridge?
In our 5-year Capital Improvement Plan we have budgeted for preliminary design in the current fiscal year, full design in 17/18, with construction in 20/21.
