The leader of Highland Council has declared that a new cycle route on one of Inverness’s busiest roads is an “essential” new feature of the city.
Councillor Drew Hendry was speaking as work officially got underway on the £733,000 project on Millburn Road.
Once completed, the cycle route will link the city centre with the new Inverness Campus.
The 18 week job is being carried out Irish firm Coffey Construction. Contracts manager John Gibbons said that the work had been designed to minimise the impact on traffic.
However, he accepted that motorists are likely to see delays while the work is carried out.
The work will involve narrowing the central reservation of the road. This is so the pavement on city centre inbound side of the road can be widened to host the new cycle path.
The plan has been criticised by opposition councillors about the high cost of the project.
But Mr Hendry hit back, saying that it would be money well spent.
He said: “What sort of message would we be putting out to people if we didn’t invest in ways of encouraging healthy living, both in Inverness and in the Highlands?
“We know that childhood obesity is one of the biggest problems facing us and cycle routes like this are a safe and lasting way of encouraging people to take exercise.”
The work is starting near Morrison’s supermarket and will back towards Millburn Roundabout.
The road has been reduced to one lane in both directions as far east as , nearly from the Raigmore Interchange, prompting concerns about delays on the busy artery.
Mr Gibbons said: “The first phase of the work involves removing part of the central reservation and after that is complete we will concentrate on the pavement on the inbound carriageway.
“The traffic management is necessary for safety reasons, both for the safety of our workforce but also to keep the public away from the work.
“There will be an impact on traffic flows but we hope to keep it to a minimum as much as possible.”
Local councillors Ian Brown and Jimmy Gray were also on site yesterday to see the work getting underway.