SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Local leaders and bike advocates joined SANDAG Thursday to break ground on a brand new bikeway in San Diego.

The group gathered at the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA around 10 a.m. to celebrate the start of construction for what’s been dubbed the Imperial Avenue Bikeway.

The 3.5-mile path, according to SANDAG, will help create safer streets for people who walk, bike, drive and take transit through the southeastern area of the city limits.

With the construction will come improvements to Imperial Avenue between 17th Street and 47th Street. This is expected to enhance connectivity for people of all ages and abilities.

The Imperial Avenue Bikeway is part of the Regional Bike Plan Early Action Program, an initiative approved by the SANDAG Board of Directors in 2013. The $25 million project is funded by a combination of state and local funds.

Finally, some bamboo-tiful news.

Two giant pandas are en route from China to the San Diego Zoo — rescuing the US from the creeping possibility of becoming panda-less.

Yun Chuan, a 5-year-old male, and Xin Bao, a 3-year-old female, were sent off in a heartwarming farewell ceremony in Sichuan Wednesday before being loaded onto a California-bound airplane.

“This farewell celebrates their journey and underscores a collaboration between the United States and China on vital conservation efforts,” Paul Baribault, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance president, said in a statement.

“Our long-standing partnership with China Wildlife Conservation Association has been instrumental in advancing giant panda conservation, and we look forward to continuing our work together to ensure the survival and thriving of this iconic species.”

The black-and-white pair are the first new giant pandas to arrive in the country in more than two decades.

Although they’ll be in the US soon enough, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, who are on loan for 10 years, will likely not be on view to the zoo visitors for several more weeks, officials warned.

Their arrival also marks a step forward for relations between China and the US, the latter of which has sent its pandas back in droves in the last few years as loan agreements have lapsed and tensions between the nations have mounted.

The US’s only remaining pandas — Atlanta’s beloved Lun Lun and Yang Yang and their twin offspring — are due back to their homeland later this year after more than two decades in America.

Giant pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, DC and the Memphis Zoo were shipped back to China last year.

Yun Chuan and Xin Bao will also be the first giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo since 2019 — and one of the bears has a family history at the refuge.

Yun Chuan’s mother, Zhen Zhen, was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007 to parents Bai Yun and Gao Gao. The new zoo guest is described by officials as a mild-mannered boy.

Xin Bao is described as “a gentle and witty introvert with a sweet round face and big ears.”

The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has a nearly 30-year partnership with leading conservation institutions in China focused on protecting and recovering giant pandas and the bamboo forests they depend on.