The Blackstone River Bikeway has been talked about and plotted on
paper for more than 10 years. Oodles of taxpayers' money has been allotted to
design and build the paved path from Worcester to Providence.
But
where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, not one inch of the 26-mile bike
path in Massachusetts is a reality -- unless you count stretches of existing
roads, such as Millbury's North Main Street (Route 122A), that eventually will
have signs labeling their shoulders part of the bike route. That is not to say
that signs alone make a road any more desirable for cycling than it is now.
Bill Perry, for one, is getting impatient.
"The Rhode
Island people are chugging along," said Perry, who is director of tourism for
the Blackstone Valley Visitors Bureau. "Massachusetts doesn't seem to be getting
it done."
Rhode Island opened a 3-mile segment of the bikeway in
Lincoln in October, with a parking area off Route 116, and hopes to open the
next stretch, through Cumberland to Woonsocket, in the fall.
Meanwhile, north of the state line, Perry said, "The impression I'm getting is
that the Big Dig is requiring a lot of resources," at the expense of other
transportation projects.
A year ago, $6 million was earmarked for the
Blackstone River Bikeway in a six-year, $203 billion federal transportation
package known as TEA 21.
"What are we waiting for? Why can't we use
that money to get rolling?" Perry asked. "We're trying to understand what we
have to do to unlock that money."
The TEA 21 money requires a 20
percent match from the state, said Michael Mershon, press secretary for U.S.
Rep. James P. McGovern, who gets credit for bringing home the $6 million.
Transportation projects across Massachusetts have been delayed at the state
level, he said, and he did not deny the suggestion that the Big Dig is the
reason.
"Congressman McGovern's position is that numerous projects
outside of Boston, including the bikeway, deserve the state's attention,"
Mershon said.
The Blackstone River Bikeway got a vote of confidence
last month when the Massachusetts committee of the East Coast Greenway Alliance
chose Worcester-to-Providence, rather than Boston-to-Providence, for its main
route. The alliance envisions connecting hundreds of miles of recreational paths
to form an "urban Appalachian trail" from Maine to Florida.
Jane
Weidman, former project manager for the Blackstone River Bikeway, is producing a
map of the route for the East Coast Greenway Alliance. It should be available
next month, she said, from the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage
Corridor Commission (401 762-0250). "It shows the planned route, and an on-road
ride route you can do in the meantime," she said.
Pieces of the
bikeway in Worcester and Blackstone are actually in the works, but don't pump up
your tires just yet.
The Massachusetts Highway Department has chosen
Rhode Island engineer Gordon Archibald to conduct structural evaluation,
preliminary design and cost analysis for a three-mile stretch of the bikeway
that coincides with the existing Southern New England Trunkline Trail in
Blackstone, Millville and Uxbridge. The trail segment includes 13 old railroad
bridges in need of repairs.
But the $250,000 contract with Archibald
has yet to be inked. "We're waiting for the Legislature to pass supplemental
transportation funding ... to make up for a federal shortfall in the
neighborhood of $300 million," said Mass. Highway spokesman Jon Carlisle. He
predicted Archibald will get the go-ahead this summer, and final design work
could follow next year.
At the northern end of the route, Mass.
Highway is spending about $2.2 million for the bikeway as part of the
Massachusetts Turnpike-Route 146 interchange, Carlisle said. Mass. Highway has
designed about three miles of paved bike path from Route 122A in Millbury to
Worcester's Millbury Street, passing under the road spaghetti that makes up the
new interchange, which opened to cars last fall. The bike path will have a spur,
using the shoulder of Route 20, to a Park and Ride lot with a proposed bus
connection, said Lenny Barbieri, manager of special projects for the
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
From the intersection of Millbury
and Ballard streets, cyclists will have two on-road options for heading north
into the city: a rebuilt Millbury Street through Quinsigamond Village, or
Ballard Street to Brosnihan Square. Ultimately, an on-road extension to Union
Station is planned.
Excavation has begun in the Mass. Pike
interchange area, and stretches of asphalt may be laid in 2000 or 2001 before
all the connecting pieces are put together, but the turnpike portion of the
bikeway won't be open before fall 2001, Barbieri said, when two rehabilitated
historic bridges will be installed over the river and canal flood plain in
Millbury. The final work on this section of the bikeway, including signs and
road markings in the Route 20 area, is scheduled for completion by fall 2002, he
said.
~~~
TIP OF THE HELMET -- to Westboro High School
sophomore Ben Thayer, 16. For his Eagle Scout project, Thayer coordinated a
volunteer team that collected 192 used bicycles on May 1 for Pedals for Progress. The bikes will be shipped
next week to Senegal, where Africans will be trained to repair them and will
sell the bikes for the equivalent of about $15 each.
"It's an
investment," Thayer explained. "It helps their lives a lot. Not a lot of people
there have cars, and there's no infrastructure for them. But bikes are a really
good way of transportation. For example, a woman taking her goods to market can
bike to more markets than she could reach on foot. Or a carpenter, say, can only
walk for about a mile with all his tools, but with a bike he can expand his
business to about an eight-mile radius."
Pedals for Progress, based
in New Jersey, recycles bikes in several countries in Latin America and Africa.
The organization's collection schedule and details of its international
partnerships are on its Web site, http://www.p4p.org/.
~~~
Part of
what makes the annual Mount
Washington Bicycle Hillclimb so challenging is that no one is allowed to
bike the route -- 7.6 miles up the auto road to the summit of New Hampshire's
highest peak -- until the race itself. But this year, race organizers have
scheduled a practice day. Cyclists who are registered for the Aug. 21 race can
take a shot at the mountain June 12, starting between 5 and 7 a.m. They are not
allowed to bike back down the road and must arrange their own automobile ride
from the summit to the base.
The race entry fee is $100. To register,
contact Tin Mountain Conservation Center (603 447-6991, tinmtn@moose.ncia.net) or visit www.tinmtn.org/tinmtn/hillclimb/.