Circular Head Council receives feasibility study into extending the Coastal Pathway from Wynyard to Smithton

A feasibility study has been conducted to determine whether it is worth spending tens of millions to extend the shared cycling pathway by around another 65km.

Cyclists at Somerset enjoying the newly opened Wynyard to Burnie section of the Coastal Pathway. Picture: Supplied.

A mayor estimates that extending the Coastal Pathway from Wynyard to Smithton would cost between $20m and $30m.

The plan so far is to run the shared cycling pathway for 85km from Latrobe to Wynyard, with most of the sections already completed.

However, the Circular Head Council has received a feasibility study report on extending it to Smithton, and Mayor Gerard Blizzard said the idea was a good one.

“Like all good ideas, it’s a matter of working on when, where and how it might happen,” Mr Blizzard said.

“It’s certainly not on our agenda in the short term. We’ve got a number of other projects going on at the moment which need to be complete.”

A group of cyclists using the Coastal Pathway. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Blizzard said he believed the project had broad community support.

“With all these sorts of projects, a part of the community would be very much for it.

“It would be great for the tourism side of things going forward. And then you have a percentage that would be blasé about it.

“There’s much more positive than negative.

“We haven’t actually formally been out to the community with it, but there’s been a lot of informal chatter about it over the last couple of years.”

But despite the community hype, Mr Blizzard said it would be unlikely that the project would commence soon.

“Hopefully it will be something that will happen over the next couple of years. In the next two, three years, we might see something happen with it.

“We’ll revisit it once we get a couple of the other plans done.”