A cycling and walking track spanning the northern beaches coastline will draw visitors from across the city, country and internationally, the administrator of the area's council says.
The Northern Beaches Council, established in May through forced merger, announced a $32.6 million investment program on Friday that will include a coastal walk and cycleway from Manly to Palm Beach (see map, below).
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The administrator of the council, Dick Persson, said the program of works would turn the northern beaches coastline into "probably one of the longest coastal urban walking and cycle ways in Australia, if not beyond."
To complete the 36-kilometre continuous walkway, parts of which already exist, the program will include 14 kilometres of new off-road shared paths.
![A $32 million program will create a coastal path from Manly to Palm Beach.](/web/20161217052650im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/c/w/f/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtcunx.png/1481868502699.jpg)
It will also include a new Palm Beach walkway, and a new path through Whale Beach, Avalon Mona Vale, Collaroy, Curl Curl, Freshwater and Manly.
And there will be 14 kilometres of new off-road shared paths for cyclists, and 22 kilometres designated on-road routes.
Mr Persson, who will remain as administrator until council elections are held in September, said "filling in the gaps" between existing walking and cycling routes along the coast was a "really important part of making people feel like they are doing a walk, rather than going along a disjointed series of gaps".
"I think it will be attractive to visitors from other parts of Australia as well as internationally," Mr Persson said.
![An existing shared path along Avalon Beach will link to a new path at Bilgola Bends.](/web/20161217052650im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/c/w/c/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtcunx.png/1481868502699.jpg)
"The key word from my point of view is connectivity."
Within the program's overall budget, $10.3 million will be spent on new accessible playgrounds, and upgrades to other play equipment. And $4 million will be spend upgrading sporting facilities and Surf Life Saving Clubs.
!["Filling in the gaps" between existing routes will be part of the process.](/web/20161217052650im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/c/w/t/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtcunx.png/1481868502699.jpg)
About $14 million for the works comes from money advanced by the state government to merged councils. Further funding comes from Transport for NSW.
The cycling and walking paths will link in places to the proposed "B-Line" Northern Beaches bus service. And about $4 million comes from savings generated by the council mergers.
The Northern Beaches program is scheduled to be finished by 2019.
Other newly merged councils have also been allocated either $10 million, for councils formed by the amalgamation of two councils, or $15 million, for those formed from three-way amalgamations.
Those merged councils are required to submit a plan for spending those funds by the end of the year.
The Inner West Council, for instance, has opted to spend about $2 million of its $15 million allocation on a similar greenway walking and cycle path, while spreading the rest across a series of smaller projects.
Cumberland Council, formed from the merger of Auburn, Holroyd, and parts of Parramatta Council, will spend the bulk of its $14 million on a new community centre, library and regional gallery at Granville Memorial Park.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20161217052650im_/http://www.smh.com.au/cqstatic/gtcwp7/nthrn-beaches-map.jpg)
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