Happy New Year - we hope your 2015 is off to a magnificent start, despite the cold weather!

Last year, we made unprecedented strides when MassDOT Secretary Richard Davey authorized the design and permitting of a pedestrian/bicycle underpass at the Anderson Memorial Bridge. Thank you all for your support that helped us reach this major milestone!

As we enter 2015, the designers at Gill Engineering are hard at work to create the best possible underpass for this bridge. We hope to see this underpass installed as part of the Anderson Bridge renovation, which will be completed in early 2016 - but in order for this to happen, we need MassDOT to stay on schedule during the design and permitting process.

Jersey barriers are being used to direct pedestrian traffic while the Anderson Memorial Bridge is being renovated.

The best way to keep MassDOT on schedule is to let them know of the growing support for this underpass from the running community - and the best way to show your support for the Anderson Bridge Underpass is to attend public meetings about its design. The first of these meetings will be held in February, and we will send out an invitation when the public meeting date is set.

In the meantime, we ask you to introduce someone new to the underpasses advocacy campaign - the more people know about these meetings, the stronger the voice of the path users will be!

To help you out, we’ve created an introductory page on advocacy issues in the lower Charles River Basin to look out for in 2015. This page can also be found on our website’s Advocacy Center. So don’t wait - forward this email to a friend so they can start learning about the underpasses!

With your continued support in the coming year, we look forward to seeing the successful installation of a pedestrian/bicycle underpass at Anderson Memorial Bridge. Thank youagain for your continued support and for helping us grow our ranks of underpass supporters!

Sincerely,

The Underpasses Team at the Charles River Conservancy