The long-awaited bike path between Broida Hall and Webb Hall won’t be built any time soon due to a lack of funds.

Associated Students Bike Committee has talked for years about building the bikepath often referred to as the Broida expressway, but its construction is not possible at this time because of the estimated $3 million price tag, said Armand Vartanian, A.S. Bike Committee member.

“The Brioda expressway would cost a bit of money to make it happen; that is the problem,” A.S. Executive Director Don Daves-Rougeaux said. “Associated Students Bikes does not have enough money.”

UCSB students passed a lock-in fee in 1999 to improve current bicycle paths and bicycle parking, but the quarterly fee of $0.75 per student only covers maintenance of bike paths, pedestrian crossings and bicycle parking. The lock-in fee is not enough to fund the construction of a new path, Daves-Rougeaux said.

“There are no campus funds and no students took initiative to put the Brioda idea on the voting ballot as a fee option,” Campus Planning and Design’s Senior Planner Dennis Whelan said.

A $6 per-student, per-quarter, one year only lock-in fee to fund construction of the Broida Expressway was included on the Spring 2002 Ballot but did not pass.

Vartanian said A.S. is in the process of putting a lock-in fee on the ballot, but it is not going to happen any time soon.

“It will take a couple of years,” he said.

Currently, only a pedestrian sidewalk exists between Broida Hall and Webb Hall, which some students on bicycles use to go to and from class in the Engineering I and Engineering II buildings. Riding bikes on campus sidewalks is prohibited, and students can be fined $77 if caught by Community Service Organization members.

Even if A.S. is able to find the funds to build the expressway, there may be some problems to be worked out before any construction can begin. The trailers by the Engineering I and Engineering II buildings would be in the way of any construction of a pathway, Whelan said.

“There is no room for a bike path and a sidewalk in that area, because a bike path is 15 to 20 feet wide,” he said.

A.S. Bike Committee will meet again Oct. 9 at 4:30 p.m. in the Goleta Valley Room of the UCen to talk about the possible construction of a Broida expressway. Whelan said few students actually voice their opinions to the committee.

“No one shows up to the meetings, but everyone complains about the paths,” Whelan said.