PAWTUCKET - Concerns on the part of some city officials may be threatening to halt construction of a four-mile extension of the Blackstone River Bikeway from Providence to Town Landing off Division Street in Pawtucket.

Following a discussion on Sept. 12, members of the Pawtucket City Council decided to hold off on consideration of a request from the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to add parking restrictions on Bowles Court and Taft Street to accommodate the new bike path.

The DOT must first hold a public meeting with the residents who will be affected by the loss of parking due to new restrictions that will come with the project, according to the council. That public meeting is scheduled for Oct. 11.

In a Sept. 15 letter from DOT Director Michael Lewis to Mayor Don Grebien, Lewis used tough language to rebuke city officials for their hesitancy, which he said could lead to the disruption of more than two years of planning work with city leaders to develop the bike path.

Lewis said the suggestion on the part of some council members that a revised route be found for the path through the city could complicate things so much that the DOT would have to put an end to all bikeway development work for the near future. "As mentioned, we have been placed in a difficult situation with these issues and the active construction contract," said Lewis. "The department will not force a project onto a community that doesn't want it, so we must have a resolution immediately in order for us to react and limit our contractual liability."

The final plans for paving, signing and striping the new portion of the bike path were reached through a collaborative effort with both Mayor Don Grebien and his predecessor James Doyle, according to Lewis. Approximately $125,000 was spent in design efforts to develop approved plans. The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources has also awarded a $38,000 grant to complete stripes along the route.

"To be successful and efficient at developing projects, we must properly investigate and vet alternatives, make informed decisions, and implement those ideas without the desire to constantly revise those same decisions at the last minute because of a difference of opinion," stated Lewis.

The newest segment of the Blackstone River Bikeway, a temporary on-road one which would start at Waterman Street in Providence and snake to downtown Pawtucket, would utilize the lightly traveled city streets of Alfred Stone Road, Pleasant Street, Bowles Court, and Taft Street, according to Lewis, with markings and other improvements added.

The new segment would finish connecting the current 10-mile Blackstone River Bikeway on Jones Street in Cumberland along the new on-street bike route to the tip of the 13.5-mile East Bay bike path.

"... It is important in that it immediately brings the Blackstone River Bikeway into the city and helps build momentum for the future downtown segments that we plan on working with the city to implement," said Lewis. "We feel this alignment immediately helps to foster the growing bicycle transportation initiative, formalizes and improves on the city's Pawtucket Bike Stripe project, and helps to upgrade some of the local infrastructure."

According to Lewis, there are significant problems posed by Pawtucket officials' reluctance on some aspects of the bikeway project.

At the Sept. 12 meeting, which Lewis missed, Pawtucket officials suggested several alternatives for placing the city's portion of the bike path on a different off-road alignment in part so constituents would not be burdened by added parking restrictions. Lewis said his people will review those suggestions going forward.

"As a cursory review based on our significant experience at designing and building projects, these options will have significant design issues, private property issues, environmental and cultural regulatory issues, and involve substantial design and construction costs," he said. "These options were considered in the past and ruled out for the above reasons."

In a Sept. 29 e-mail blast to subscribers, Pawtucket Foundation Executive Director Thomas Mann, a strong advocate for the bike path in Pawtucket, explained the predicament the city now finds itself in with an active contract in place to complete the bike path to Pawtucket Town Landing within a few months.

Although the path alignment has been in discussion during two different administrations, a project that includes paving, striping and signing the bike path up to Town Landing in Pawtucket is now in danger of being called off, said Mann.

"This would be a major setback for the hundreds of stakeholders who have diligently fought for the highly desired bike path alignment over the last decade," he said.

Bob Billington, the president of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council who has been a key backer of the Pawtucket Bike Stripe project, said Tuesday that he realizes the on-road segment being built by the DOT is not the "optimal" one along the river, but "it is progress and will work for cyclists to and from Pawtucket."

Said Billington, "I do hope that RIDOT and Pawtucket can clear any hurdles in the way of construction soon and complete this important connection to the south and the north.

"The temporary on-road markings and signs that we installed this summer have proved that there is a strong interest in cycling to and through Pawtucket," he added. "The (new segment) makes this permanent and will boost our viability as a destination. We must not ever let the idea of constructing the bikeway along the river's edge in Pawtucket fade."