City eyes pedestrian bridge for Lynnway

LYNN – The $20 million pedestrian bridge that spans Ocean Avenue in Revere was officially dedicated Monday, and Lynn Community Development Director James Marsh is already starting a conversation to bring the same to the Lynnway.”It’s not like it will be built tomorrow, but I want to start looking at it,” he said.The John Markey Memorial Pedestrian Bridge runs from the Wonderland train station over Ocean Avenue to Revere Beach Parkway.MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said work started on the footbridge, which looks much like a miniature version of Boston’s Leonard Zakim Bridge, last month. The deck was poured Nov. 14 and work on railings, lighting and cleanup continues.”The plazas are also nearing completion with elevators, railings, lighting and other finishes remaining to be completed,” he wrote Wednesday in an email.The project was funded in 2010 through a Federal Transit Authority TIGER grant, which city officials and Eurovest, Revere’s designated master developer for the Revere Beach transit-oriented development area, filed for jointly.Marsh has designs on winning a similar grant for Lynn though he admits it is a long shot. He said he plans to meet with Paul Rupp, a Swampscott consultant who worked on the Revere project, for guidance.”It’s nothing new,” he said regarding his plan. “It’s smart development. It’s all a part of the city’s master plan.”A real estate appraisal was conducted on the South Harbor site in September. At the time Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy called it another step forward in a “complicated, huge deal” aimed at bringing a developer to 20 acres of waterfront land off of the Lynnway.Marsh said Tuesday that if South Harbor, the area of land located near the General Edwards Bridge on the Lynnway, is developed he wants to be ready to move, which is why he’s beginning to think now about access down the road. He would even consider putting in a pedestrian bridge before the land is developed if he can pull together the resources.”It’s the chicken and the egg,” he said. “Do we build and then put in the bridge or do the bridge now?”Either way Marsh said crossing the Lynnway on foot is a dangerous proposition that has gotten people killed.He calls the sweeping six-lane roadway with a wide median strip “our Storrow Drive.” He argues that the Charles River, which runs along Storrow Drive, wouldn’t be nearly as popular or populated if not for the 12 or more footbridges that allow city dwellers to easily cross the busy thoroughfare.”You have the Boston Pops playing on the Esplanade ? it would be nothing without access from downtown Boston proper to BU (Boston University) and beyond,” he said.Marsh likes to speculate about the day when the waterfront is fully developed and people will have the option to walk the boardwalk to shops and cafes or head to the beach or to the marina.”But the important part is access,” he said. “You have to have access.”When asked if he is getting ahead of the show, Marsh just shrugged.”You had to start the conversation on the power lines at some point,” he said.Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].