The Ceres City Council has awarded a contract to continue with the bike trail in Ceres.

George Reed, Inc., a big local paving contractor, was the winning bidder at $1.05 million to extend the bike trail east of Mitchell Road on the TID Main Canal down to Roeding Road. The bike and pedestrian path currently ends at Whitmore Avenue.

"In order to construct the pathway in this location a substantial amount of retaining wall construction is involved," explained City Engineer Daryl Jordan in a staff report to the council.

In 2014 the city saw the Hatch Road bicycle bath extend to Whitmore Avenue with nearly $800,000 in grant funds. Ross F. Carroll, Inc., was given a $369,627 contract to build a bike path along the east side of TID Main Canal between Hatch Road and Fowler Road near Ceres Fire Station #4. Through a second contract not to exceed $424,616, the same firm will build the bike path along the same canal southward to Whitmore Avenue.

Once complete, the bike path will allow bicyclists and pedestrian to travel all the way from Rhode Road all the way to Richland Avenue at Hatch Road without the fear of conflicting with cars and trucks other than through intersections.

The majority of the funding comes from a Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) grant intended to promote non-motorized forms of transportation and reduce air pollution. The rest comes from Public Facility Fees paid by developers who have passed those costs onto people who buy their houses.