On Tuesday evening, MassDOT hosted a virtual hearing for an update on its new bike and pedestrian bridge over the Mystic River between Draw Seven Park in Somerville and the Northern Strand Trail in Everett, which it expects to complete by the end of 2029.
The meeting presented the bridge’s “25 percent” design – a concept-level plan that, if approved, will allow the project to advance into its final phases of permitting and drawing up detailed construction blueprints.
William Conroy, MassDOT’s project manager, told attendees that the agency had already made “extensive, I would say leaps and bounds since the last public information meeting” progress in the project’s environmental permitting process, a necessary step before the project begins construction sometime next year.
The broad details of the design remain unchanged from versions that MassDOT had presented earlier this year. The bridge will be 18 feet wide, with gentle slopes that will be fully accessible under Americans With Disabilities Act standards…