Merritt applies for active transportation grant funding

The City of Merritt is applying to the Canada Infrastructure program – COVID-19 Resilience infrastructure Stream – to help fund the West Merritt Active Transportation Path.

“Staff is recommending that we apply to fund the West Merritt Active Transportation Path through this new stream, in addition to the previous application. We understand that making an application under this stream will not prejudice our previous application for this project in any way,” said CAO Sean Smith.

If the City was successful in receiving the grant funding for the path, the KVR bridge would need to be funded through other avenues.

“This program is 100% grant-funded, so the only risk in applying is that if successful, the City would need to pay for the $80,496 KVR Pedestrian Bridge Repair project out of reserves or seek alternative funding sources. If this trade-off materialized, the City would save more than $520,000 versus seeing this project funded under the Community, Culture and Recreation Stream,” added Smith.

The total project cost is just shy of $3-million.

The project is the development of active transportation infrastructure, specifically a multi-use pathway. This project, located in the West Merritt neighbourhood, will also connect to two schools, Merritt Secondary School and Merritt Central Elementary School.

Construction would include 2.1 km of active transportation infrastructure.