This is shaping up to be a busy year for the County Wide Active Transportation System, also known as CWATS.
It's been 5 years since work on CWATS started and, do date, 300 kilometres of trails across the county have been established.
The county's Manager of Transportation Planning and Development, Jane Mustac, says the trails are becoming more popular among those looking for a more active lifestyle. "We do have two sets of summer data that shows the improvement. As we start getting connected, as we build the awareness and the knowledge and, of course, get people to change their behaviours and use the trails we'll see a big increase and that will inevitably make them safer as well with more people."
"There's lot of work planned for 2017 as well," says Mustac. "We do have our 2017 program approved. It includes various facilities in a lot of different towns and we've also approved a separate paved shoulder program to get some paved shoulders in three different areas. So definitely successful in that way and we will get a lot of kilometres completed at the end of the year."
The goal is to have 800 kilometres of trails across the county by the year 2032.
The projected cost is $72-million.