A slightly longer bike path has been added to the Bourne Bridge replacement project to connect Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School to the Gallo Ice Arena on Sandwich Road.
The change adds about one-third of a mile to the path for cyclists and pedestrians, plus other road improvements, to make travel safer between the school and the rink.
The Healey administration approved the extension at the request of Bourne officials, according to Luisa Paiewonsky, who is leading the project for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
“It's in the interest of bicyclists and pedestrian safety, and it will support not only the students at the school, but all travelers in the area who are moving by bike and on foot,” she said.
The state estimates the path and other road improvements between the school and rink will cost between $5 million and $6 million.
Paiewonsky, the department's executive director of megaproject delivery, said the cost can be covered by existing contingency funds in the bridge budget, and it won’t raise the combined estimate of $4.5 billion for the Bourne and Sagamore bridges.
“We're not suggesting that there's a blank checkbook waiting for us,” she said. “We have to keep it to manageable levels, but we do assume that as we move through the design, we're going to make changes that may well cost money.”
The bike path extension is included in an environmental document the department filed Tuesday with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office.
The Draft Environmental Impact Report will be publicly available next week, and the state is accepting comments through Oct. 24.
A federal version of the document is also required, and the department expects to file it within the next month.
Before the federal environmental document can be filed, Paiewonsky said, the state needs federal approval of a different document — its response to how the bridge project will affect recreational and natural resources, including Bourne Scenic Park, which is a campground owned by the Bourne Recreation Authority, and the Cape Cod Canal recreation areas owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
