DCR, City to Decide on Designer for New Bridge

By Seth Daniel

City, state and Wynn Boston Harbor officials are preparing this week to decide on a firm to study and design a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge that would cross the Mystic River near the casino property.

The design and study is a requirement of state environmental regulators that reviewed the Wynn Boston Harbor proposal. Wynn has to pay for the study, which is for the Department of Conservation (DCR) and Recreation and the City of Everett.

Jay Monty, a transportation planner for the City, said this week that three firms had submitted proposals for the project, which would unite the Assembly Row T Station with the Wynn Casino.

This week, he said they had found a firm they were all comfortable with and would be announcing their pick soon.

The DCR did not return a request for information, and Wynn Boston Harbor said it was looking to the DCR for the decision.

The pedestrian and bike bridge would connect to the Northern Strand Community Path, which runs from Santilli Circle deep into Lynn in a mostly separated path that accommodates bicyclists and pedestrians.

In Everett, the popularity of the path has grown substantially and also includes community gardens around its sidelines. It is one of the main priorities for Mayor Carlo DeMaria.

Monty said the bridge has been a hope for quite some time, and the reality of it coincides with a separate, but connected, process just initiated by the City to build the path from Santilli Circle to the Wynn Boston Harbor property. The first public meeting for that project will be May 4.

The bridge, on the other hand, is still only in the beginning design and study stage, but Monty said that’s significant. “The bridge has been on the wish list of a lot of folks for a long time,” he said. “Of course, this dovetails with Everett’s extension project of the path that would bring it up to the bridge. “

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