Dyoondalup Bike Park hits the brakes over April school holidays, as some trails close for maintenance

Timing confusion means parts of the popular Dyoondalup Cycle Park at Point Walter will be closed for maintenance over the next few weeks, unfortunately clashing with the April school holidays.

Areas marked as unsafe due to maintenance work will be fenced to limit access, meaning the entire park will not need to be closed at once.

The closure, announced on the City of Melville Facebook, received a disappointing public response because it coincided with the Easter school holidays, which ran from April 3 to April 19.

“Couldn’t you have waited until after the school holidays? It’s not rocket science,” one person commented.

“Why do you always do this during school holidays? You did this last time there was maintenance,” another wrote.

City of Melville Chief Executive Gail Bowman told PerthNow the city tries to avoid school holiday periods, but sometimes it’s not possible to do so.

“It is important that the work is completed before winter as the materials used need sufficient time to cure and harden in warmer, drier conditions.

“The works were originally booked to be completed in mid-March, well outside the school holiday period.

“Unfortunately the contractor has experienced delays which has resulted in the program being postponed into the current school holiday period.

“Further delaying works could risk pushing the project into winter conditions, compromising the quality and durability of the finished work and contractor availability not allowing for greater flexibility.”

The correction and hardening works carried out on the tracks and jump lines aim to increase driver safety. Key sections of the road that have deteriorated will also be reshaped and stabilized.

The city hopes the work will reduce the frequency and cost of ongoing maintenance.

Ms Bowman said contractors completing the work had to make an appointment six months in advance, meaning the work could not be rescheduled.

“The works are being carried out by a specialist trail construction and maintenance contractor with expertise in mountain bike park infrastructure,” he said.

The jump park, green flow path and potentially black flow path will be affected.

The project started on March 30 and is expected to take two to four weeks to complete.

“The contractor is working to complete the program as efficiently as possible, but exact completion dates will depend on conditions on site,” Ms Bowman said.

“Other parts of the park, such as the pump path, green jump line and blue flow path, will remain open to the public.”

The City of Melville also responded to community feedback on the Facebook post.

“We always try to plan this type of work outside of school holidays because we know how much fun and entertainment parks like this contribute to our society,” he said.

“Unfortunately this time there were factors beyond the city’s control that meant the work had to be carried out on these dates.”