A new route in Inverness will remove the need for people who are walking, wheeling or cycling from Raigmore to cross busy roads.
Preparation work on the site of the Raigmore Active Travel Link will begin on Monday before construction gets under way on May 3.
The link will encourage movement from Raigmore estate and existing Golden Bridge to the Raigmore Interchange. The route will allow access to Inverness Shopping Park and onto Culloden from the Raigmore Interchange via Inverness Campus.
It is part of the Inverness City Active Travel Network (ICATN), which includes future schemes along Millburn Road and Raigmore Interchange to ensure good connectivity to the city centre and east of the city.
The new link will consist of a “Z” type layout to provide a gentler incline.
The scheme also includes a guardrail, a continuous handrail, path lighting, signage and seating. A significant landscaping scheme will see more than 4,000 shrubs and 465 trees of various sizes planted in the woodland and on embankment slopes.
The existing steps to Raigmore Estate from the interchange will remain.
Sjoerd Tel, infrastructure coordinator at Sustrans, said: “This work will have a real positive impact for people looking to travel between the Campus, Raigmore Estate and the City Centre. The benefits will particularly come to show when improvements planned for Raigmore Interchange and Millburn Corridor are also implemented in the near future.”
The work will be complete in September.