A cyclist navigates busy traffic as pressure to provide better routes grows / Pic: Stephen Cooper Source: The Daily Telegraph IT has already cost ratepayers $770 a metre but now a bicycle path meant to connect to the isolated College St cycleway is at risk of being dumped. Consultants were paid $174,000 to design Wentworth Ave cycleway, with Sydney City Council spending $312,000 in total to plan, design, consult with the public and prepare tender documents. Now the 405m path, already stalled for 12 months, could be scrapped in light of a new city centre access plan to be revealed this month. The two-way separated path, set to connect College St along Wentworth Ave from Liverpool St to a shared path on Elizabeth St, was endorsed in 2011 when documents stated it would be operational by mid-2013. The tender was withdrawn at council last week, with millions of dollars of bike path works on hold until two plans - a strategic bike network and a city centre access plan - are agreed on between the council and state government. "We think (Wentworth Ave) may be subject to change as a result of the access plan in the CBD," a council cycling adviser told the council. Lord mayor Clover Moore said the $312,000 was "essential" to spend to have the RMS consider the bike route. "We hope the scope and results of our work will be considered positively by Transport NSW," she said. The council's 2007 cycling strategy did not identify Wentworth Ave as a cycling route, proposing Castlereagh St would be the link "on the basis that buses would be removed from this corridor." "It has become evident that Castlereagh St will not develop in this manner in the foreseeable future," council documents state. Wentworth Ave has been identified as a suitable alternative corridor to serve the needs of the network in this area. Labor councillor Linda Scott said the government's transport committee had delayed the project - costing Sydney "vast amounts of money." "I am disappointed that the Premier has chosen to hold up the design and installation of inner city cycleways," she said. It only serves to drain resources away from other much-needed future projects. Either Mr O'Farrell is underhandedly trying to stymie the success of Sydney's cycleways or he simply cannot deliver on a timely plan for inner city Sydney. A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said the committee was set up to ensure major transport decisions were properly coordinated between the state government and council and that the government "is committed to providing safe and accessible cycleways."