Between Michelson and Campus the Regional Parks Connector Bikeway (AKA Mountains to the Sea , San Diego Creek & Peters Canyon) has a hard closure and detour on sidewalks. The IRWD is working on 2 sewer syphons that go under the channel.

Just at the T intersection with the connector of the Sand Canyon bikeway, the trail is closed heading upstream and the detour sends you abruptly east, across a driveway, to the NW corner of Harvard & University - then north on the sidewalk of Harvard across 2 more driveways to just past the construction zone. It is illegal and dangerous to ride the wrong way (facing traffic) in bike lanes (ie: WB University or SB Harvard) so stay on the sidewalk. For safer on street riding, from the NW corner of Harvard & University, you can cross Harvard & proceed left (north) in the Bike Lane, turn left (west) at Michelson and then turn right back onto the bikeway (upstream of Michelson). In response to the ‘heads up’ shared by BCI Members, The City of Irvine has been told by the OCBC that the closure is hidden around a curve on the dip so additional early warning of the closure / detour will be posted to give time to slow down into this abrupt detour.

Rolling downstream is more obvious; you get detoured off to the Harvard sidewalk & turn right at University, and bear right on the connecting path to get back on the bikeway. There is a Class II bike lane on SB Harvard and WB University but no curb cuts so you will have to go off a curb or be stuck on the sidewalk until the first driveway. For BCI riders comfortable with on-street riding, you can exit the path onto SB Harvard Bike Lane at the drive way just past the synagog. Turn right at University & then bear right at the driveway onto the Shady Canyon path, or stay on University to get back on the path just past Campus.

The side path along UNIVERSITY is wide - but the sidewalk on HARVARD is narrow so slow down & be careful. All path users - including pedestrians and ebikes - are sharing a narrow side walk in 2 way travel.
’Wrong-way’ riding on a side walk or side path is dangerous at every drive way - the detour crosses 3...
Unless you are inept at cycling in a Class II bike lane, you have no reason to follow the sidewalk pedestrian detour. Take the street! It may be a bit longer but is safer and faster.

The posted signs said it would be closed June 14 to August 27.
They changed the date to September 24…
but finished and were out of the way by September 5th
IRWD Public Affairs (949) 453-5500