Road reopens after construction on Albert St and Fourth St

Phrase two took place over Fourth Street onto Albert Street between Pine Street and Milton Street. (City of Nanaimo)

Construction is near completion for phase two of the Albert / Fourth Complete Street project. Soon pedestrians, cyclists and drivers will have an easier and safer route between downtown and the Harewood area.

Phrase one of the project, which was completed in the summer of 2022, worked on Fourth St between Harewood Road and Pine Street. Phrase two continues up Fourth Street onto Albert Street between Pine Street and Milton Street. 

Jamie Rose, manager of transportation for the city of Nanaimo said the project consists of working on many different factors in the area.

“So the work that's going on right now has many factors or many elements to it. There are some underground utility parts of it, and there are some water main upgrades, but largely what the community is going to see is the improvement for active transportation connection between the residential area west of Pine Street, to downtown,” Rose said

The construction will also see the installation of a new fish-friendly culvert across Albert Street.

The Fourth and Albert corridor is identified in the city plan as a primary active transportation route because of the connection to Vancouver Island University. The City of Nanaimo states on its website that the university is currently the City’s largest cycling destination.

“So we want to try and link those two urban centres as well as linking the university to all of the sorts of more regional transportation opportunities between seaplanes, Helijet and ferries and things of that nature,” Rose said.

Future phases will see continued work on the rest of Albert Street down to Victoria Cresent. Although nothing has been set in stone for the plans, Rose said the focus will be to improve the active transportation connectivity.

“At some point, we do want to continue down Albert Street to the heart of downtown and improve the cycling infrastructure,” Rose said. “The road as it’s built right now is quite challenging because of the space and so we have talked about a few different ideas over the years and some of it was discussed through the downtown mobility hub project back in 2019.”

Rose said there are a couple of ideas right now for the future continuation, most of them involve some ways of parking removal but they will need to work with the community to get a better understanding of what is wanted and what is not.

As for now, the road between Pine Street and Milton Street is open again and landscaping will be starting soon. Final paving and road markings are weather-dependent and will likely be completed in the spring of next year.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.