Pima County is finishing work on new six-foot bike lanes along Camino De La Tierra, which will serve several schools and provide connections between the Rillito River and CDO Wash.

Pima County’s bicycle and pedestrian program manager Matt Zoll said the county is completing work on bike lanes from the north side of the Rillito River path to just north of Orange Grove Road. The new lanes will  connect to existing  shoulders that will take cyclists all the way to the CDO path.

The intersection at Camino De La Tierra and Orange Grove had to be widened to accommodate the bike lanes.

Cyclists Paul Steffen said by email that the lanes are a welcome addition.

“This is such a great gift to the community because there are five schools within a few blocks to the path,” Steffen wrote. “There are many families who bike on occasion to my daughter’s school along the path and we all dread the short ride from the path up to school.  There is a white ghost bike commemorating someone who was killed on that stretch within a block north of the path on the East side.”

Zoll said the addition of the bike lanes up to the intersection cost about $50,000 and the widening up the intersection would cost about $150,000.

“The nice thing is, it is a new connection not only to the loop, but between the city and the county and provides a connection between the two pathways,” Zoll said. “Then we have three schools located along the route so that helps staff as well as scone school folks getting to and from.”

Check out a map of the schools within a few blocks of the new bike lanes that Paul Steffen put together: