The Botanic Gardens Riverwalk project would connect the City Reach Boardwalk at the corner of Edward and Alice streets to the Bunya Walk, which runs through the City Botanic Gardens.

Currently, a pedestrian-only path connects the existing riverwalk to the Bunya Walk.

The upgrade is part of the Brisbane City Council’s four-year, $100 million path and bikeway program.

While the council has not yet revealed how much the riverwalk would cost, deputy mayor Adrian Schrinner said the path would complete a missing link in the popular pedestrian and cyclist route between the CBD and South Bank.

“More than 3000 pedestrians and cyclists already use this route every day and many more will make the most of the leisure opportunities our river has to offer with the construction of this new river walk,” he said.

“The proposed Botanic Gardens Riverwalk will see a six-metre wide, separated and bi-directional cycling and pedestrian pathway extend the City Reach Boardwalk 176-metres to the Botanic Gardens’ Bunya Walk.”

The path was designed to complement the council’s plans for a new river access hub along the riverwalk.

The preliminary design plans showed the separated path would have a pedestrian path to one side and a green painted bi-direction cyclist path on the other side.

Space 4 Cycling BNE representative Belinda Ward said the existing path was “skinny” and certainly needed upgrading, but questioned where the money was coming from.

“It’s fairly substantial, there are lots of constraints around heritage and trees and everything there ...but we would firstly go what is the total cost of the project because there has been $1.3 million in the two subsequent budgets for this and that won’t go near covering this total project,” she said.

“The thing that is a bit interesting from our perspective is there is the proposed future river access hub ... it starts to feel like with this project the bikeway budget is kind of subsidising this river access strategy.

“I guess we don’t really have a problem with that happening, it’s just that should it really be coming under the bikeway budget.”

Ms Ward said cyclists were not unhappy the project was happening but had unanswered questions about how it would fit with other projects.

Bicycle Queensland chief executive Anne Savage said the riverwalk was great new for cyclists as well as Brisbane residents and visitors.

"The new riverwalk will help to get more people cycling more often and we commend Brisbane City Council for its investment in this important piece of shared community infrastructure," she said.,

The council has opened a public survey for residents to give feedback on the design which will be open until February 28.

There will also be information sessions on February 20, 22, 24.

Construction of both the riverwalk and the river access hub is expected to be completed in late 2019.