 to come on stage and start sharing something? Or are we starting with you all? You all know? Testing, can you all hear me in the room? It's really muffled. Yeah. Alan, we're having a harder time hearing you as more people aren't there. But it is pretty loud outside, so that might be it. Got it. Okay. My question was, is Aaron going to come on stage and shortly just kind of kick us off and start our presentation? Or is it you all? He is not here yet. I'll go get him. Yeah, we will go get him though, to start things off. Okay. All right, because that's when we need to start broadcasting and I need to start recording. So I just, I didn't want to have an official start until I know when. That's all. Yep. Perfect. I'm not standing here because I think Aaron will take the stage, so... Wait, I think we... Yeah. Yeah. Nothing really anywhere besides... Oh my gosh. Oh boy. Is that my water bottle? Did everybody on here get to see the water spill disaster? No, I think the camera had switched. That's why there's nothing... I just think that could have been a sub. I hope we're recording. Will someone go back and watch that footage? What happened? I picked up my water, not thinking that the lid was not off. Did that on television? Yeah, I don't... I missed my laptop then. Got another new one. That's why I go through laptops. Water damage. It's fine. Yeah. No, I know it'll dry, but that was just... If we do it good. The cats just got, like, immediately very wrinkly in the water spots. Oh, it's okay. You're sitting at the table. And if we do a fun slip, it'll be like, you know, we're gonna jump full and... I should have told my parents to watch. Set a nice tone for the night. Watch the news. You're gonna watch you fall. No, I'm not falling. Is it recorded yet? I don't know. I'll check with Alan later if that was on camera. It's not recorded yet, yeah. I actually think the spill was missed on camera, and we are not recording a broadcast or a lot more, so... Perfect. Okay, I don't think we need to stand up and sit up here, so... Yeah, I think we're gonna duck at it. You good? Yeah, I'm just sending Alan a message here. Yeah. Do you need any assistance or are we good to exit the stage? Do you want me to get anyone off here? I'm gonna stop sharing. I want the interpreters to come up, just so I can... I think they're all gonna be in here, but... Okay. Yeah? Yes. All right, one second, Aaron. Hi, everyone. Welcome. Do you want me to... Yeah, can you just tell Alan to go ahead and start recording? Okay, so good evening. Alan, I think you're somewhere... Yes. Yes. If you could start recording, that would be wonderful. Recording in progress. There we go. And if you want to make sure we are broadcasting on public TV, we are good to go. Okay, you've got a thumbs up. I feel like that. I feel like I'm in an airplane. So, guys, we're really excited to have our second workshop for the Walk Bike Bridge East-West Crossing over I-89 at Williston Road. If that's not why you're here, please stay. We'd love to have your input. And I just want to take a few moments to thank the team and introduce a few other folks who are in the room tonight. And hopefully you'll get a chance to meet them as after the presentation or listen to them. So, my name is Alana Blanchard. I work for the City of South Burlington. And I'm the Community Development Director. And I have the pleasure of working with all these folks on this project. Erin, I don't know if you introduced yourself already. Okay. So, Erin Goyed is the project team leader for BHB. So, he's leading all the different consultants that are working on this project from many different firms. Eddie Padmody Fuzero is over here against the wall. She's the architect for the bridge. And she's also working with Fred Koutmaier, which is right there waving in the back. Also an architect. Rick Plenge is with BHB and he is somewhere. So he's, oh, he's outside. He didn't was doing sign in or in the hallway generally, but he's working on pedestrian bicycle connections as are many other transportation team members. And then I also want to call out Chris Smith, who is works for Majeski and maskers and is designing the bridge portion of this project in terms of the overall bridge structure and stability and testing and making sure that it will last for 100 years. And then Mike Willard, you may have seen on other projects in the past and then Mark Hamlin are working on landscape architecture as well as Don Kinsvatter, he's in the center there. And someone new who maybe someone can give me the name. Kathy, thank you. And then this project is has a huge enormous grant from the federal government US Department of Transportation. It's actually signed by the secretary of the office of the secretary. So, Pete, secretary, good edge, judge, all these names today. Sorry. But because of that, we get to work with me trans and Peter poach up is right over there on the corner. So he has been administering this grant and just doing wonders with all of the paperwork that is involved in a federal grant. And so really appreciate all the work he's put into it. So, I'm really looking forward to hear what you guys have to say tonight and and so have at it. Thank you. A couple of very quick housekeeping items. We do have three translators in the audience tonight. French, Nepali, and Spanish. And if there's anybody that needs translation services. I don't know if if the translators want to just give that message. So if anybody needs translating services, I'm here. Thank you. French. Yes, for French. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is a bugle with portal and I'm working as a translator for Nepali language is anybody need Nepali translation. I'm here. Thank you. Great. Thank you. The other housekeeping item is we asked everybody to take a few sticky notes and a pen when you came in during the presentation tonight. We're going to ask that you jot down some notes as we talk through the concepts. Does everybody have sticky notes and a pen? If anybody doesn't raise your hand. We do have a few extras. Lots of extras. Great. Thank you. And okay, so we're going to jump in here. We're going to call a few people up on stage as we get to the concepts to talk them through. But we'll start with a few general items. A little bit of setting the stage of the project for those who didn't attend the first meeting we had back in June. Or those who are unfamiliar with the project. There was a previous scoping study that was completed by the city with the RPC. And really going through the background of the project and a lot of community engagement at that time to set the purpose and need statement and to determine the pathway location and the bridge location. This is the purpose and need statement. I'm not going to read the whole thing. But essentially we're looking to create a safe, visible, comfortable and convenient crossing of 89. This is the city council approved pathway alignment that came out of that study. For those who are unfamiliar with the location. We've got Williston Road. At the top of the screen, Interstate 89, running north and south. We've got the Staples Plaza, Corey Hill on the west side. We've got CVS, Comfort Inn and Holmwood Suites and the University Mall on the right hand side on the east. And the pathway and the bridge is shown in this red dashed line. It comes down the on ramp for the southern barrel of the interstate across the interstate and then up the off ramp for the northern barrel. As Alana mentioned, there is a USDOT raise grant. It is contributing about 9.7 million. There is about 4.7 million in local TIF district funding and some other sources to make up the total project budget of about 14.5 million. So the project process consists of three phases. Phase A is the project definition where we're defining what the infrastructure is that will be built. Phase B is project design where we really get into the calculations and develop the engineering plans. And then phase C is the construction of the project where you see the contractor out in the field building the infrastructure. Right now we're at the concept design phase of phase A. So we're still defining the project. That's why you're all here tonight to give input into that design. There will be a city council presentation of the proposed design on November 7th. The TIF district financing will be put on the ballot for the springtime and then we'll jump into our conceptual plans. So this project has a lot of community engagement and we love to hear all of the thoughts and all of the ideas that have come from the public. There's been a number of stakeholder meetings. There's been a bunch of focus groups, abutting landowners. We've gotten input from VTRANS and FHWA related to interaction with the interstate. We had an initial workshop on June 16th where we heard from many of you. And I mentioned all of this because this meeting is one input for public engagement. There's a lot of other public engagement and a lot of other input coming in to the project team to be able to inform those decisions for what the infrastructure will look like. I also want to just mention there will be a third workshop on October 13th. So mark your calendars. This will be the presentation of the final single concept and looking for additional, any final input at that point in time. So to recap, public workshop number one, we went through a lot of the existing conditions. We looked at some example bridge photos to get the creative juices flowing. What could a pedestrian bridge look like crossing the interstate? We looked at some example retaining walls knowing that we're going to need some vertical retaining walls in this project. And then we had our breakout sessions where we took a little bit deeper dive on the bridge structure, the pathway, and talking about project sustainability and other environmental concerns. So we heard a lot. We have a lot of notes from public workshop number one. And we took those notes and we broke them down into the words that we heard and we made a word cloud. And so for those who are unfamiliar with the word cloud, you enter all of the words that you've heard and the more times you enter a word, the bigger that word is going to get. So connections is the biggest word here. We heard loud and clear. People are concerned about the connections. They want to know what the connections are going to be beyond just the bridge. And there's also a lot of other good information in here. People want a safe infrastructure. They want greenery and lighting. They want it to be a gateway. They want art involved. They want it to be modern, diverse. All of this input went to our project team and helped to inform the concepts that we're going to see tonight. We did want to just touch on the connections. This is very, very important and we agree that it's important. There's so many good connections out there. Wanted to also reinforce that the purpose of this project is the bridge component. The city is undertaking a separate project with the regional planning commission to look beyond the bridge area to look at those connections that will be made by the bridge. But it really all starts with the bridge. So we're focusing on the bridge. Additional public input will be solicited at that time of the next, that connection study. I believe that's, I believe that's set to kick off next year. So it will kick off this year with public input continuing into next year. Thank you, Erica. So jumping into our design concept development. I'm going to ask Eti and Chris to come up on stage. As Alana mentioned, Eti is our project architect. She's been working on the bridge. She and her team. And Chris is the structural engineer for the project at this point advising Eti on what's possible and what's not possible in the realm of the structure. Thank you. Okay. Hi everyone. And so I want to jump in into the design concept options that we are coming up with and truly. Sorry, I probably should have. Sorry, I probably should have mentioned this. This is when we're asking you to take the notes on each of the concepts as we put the visuals on the on the screen that show the bridge. We'd ask you to write down kind of two main questions. What do you like about the concept? And what would you change about the concept? And then we'll have an opportunity to go back into the hallway where all the boards are displayed and be able to put those notes on the board where that comment is applicable. We'd also ask the same at the same time for those who are virtual to use the mural link that the link has been provided. And be able to place those sticky notes into the mural. That's been that's been populated. Question. My question is about, I'm not going to ask you details about connections. Which projects start? We'll get to that in the presentation. Great. Thank you. Hi. So we are going to show you the options that we came up with. And I just want to absolutely stress that these options we came up with completely based on a lot of the comments that you did last time. So as in a lot of these public engagement, there's no such thing as just one ideas. Many of the ideas were like, what do you call that? In different buckets. So they're like, might be against each other almost. And so we need to kind of sort them out. And so based on that, we thought the three options that we have basically represent some almost all of the comments that you give to us. And we're really excited about it. So we have three options. One is the land bridge. The second one is the firm on the bridge, which is more traditional. And then the third one is the modern bridge. If you look at the cloud before, right below the connectivity or connections, you see a lot of words there like nature, green, and modern cutting edge. Those are the things that, but like modern and traditional, they don't really mesh. And so that's why we just put it in different buckets. And so on the land bridge, we're looking at what you're saying about you want to have something green, something wide, something very natural. So in here, we focus very much into the user's perspective. That's the main focus. What if we give you a way, a place where you can go through it beautifully with a lot of nature, not just on the pathway, but also on the bridge itself. So in here, what we did was we tried to give you as wide as possible. So in the middle, it goes wider, like around 35 feet. But then we went even a step further by figuring out what if we create this jagged edge, so it's more like a sawtooth. So in a way, you steal even more room for you. And what we came up with is this area that you can have one area that is for a shared space between a pedestrian and bicycle. But then you can have the other area that you can have it more respite where you have planting, you have places to sit. Do you want to do next? And yeah, so you can see this. And actually, in all of the bridge, let me just go back. We want to make sure that even though we focus on one thing, we do want to make sure that the bridge look nice both from the people using the bridge, but also from the highway. We want to make sure they are safe. And we want to make sure that all of them are easy to navigate. Meaning then for people with mobility issues or other things, it is what do you call that gradual enough that you can use it and also providing places to stop, so places of respite. And so let's stop a long time on this one. So this is what you have with the first one, which is the land bridge that really express about using the whole area of the bridge to feel more like a pathway. Thank you. So these are like the views that you get from the highway. So the next one is the Vermonti Bridge. This is the one that a lot of the people also looking for a traditional bridge and traditional bridge was interpreted as doing a covered bridge. Now, it's one thing to do a covered bridge, you know, in a traditional manner, but this is over the highway. So what we're trying to do here is trying to evoke some of the covered bridge, but it has a modern spin to it. So what we pick here is the trust bridge. And then so the trust itself would create some sort of an enclosure or a feel of enclosure and we break it into so then there's like straight line and straight line and where they meet is the knuckle. We created another place of respite where people can stop or an observation. And what we try to do here, then they're not like the first one where it becomes wide. They're just one long bridge, but they feel like hopefully what we're trying to do is something that almost like floating inside this structure. And even though they're still very open and very light, we're looking for like a jewelry box kind of feel. Even though they're still very open and transparent, we want to still have that sense of enclosure. So this is what we came up with for the traditional bridge. And there were a lot of comments about creating something with a sense of enclosure. So those comments get expressed here. So these are like all the different views, both from the highway and from the inside. And so the last one is the modern bridge. Some people were looking for something. It's like a new thing and there's this like place where there's the university, there's science, do something that is cutting edge. So we did this here and it's a little bit similar to the land bridge. But what we want here, instead of being transparent, we start to play with the idea of enclosure. What if you like turn your back to the highway and create this cocoon so that when you're going through it, you'll feel like you're inside something. You're like really protected. And what we want, and I know we're not married to the orange, though I like the orange. What we want here is to create more like a sculpture. So one of the other ideas is like to take the mountains in Vermont. And that's what we have. So we have this kind of a whole sculpture with a splash of color. So what you imagine when you're going through the highway where everything has a lot of monotony, you suddenly get jolted by this form that just crossed around across the highway or the horizon with a splash of color. And I think that will create like a statement where people, you know, it marks like the entrance to South Burlington. So that's where here we like truly, truly push that idea of what if we do that, you know, like a statement kind of bridge. And here, again, we make it wider, not as wide as the land bridge. And we have the pathways, basically they're not separated, but they can change material and color. So then you know, on one side, you have an area where you can sit and have a respite. But then on the other side with another color, that's where you have the shared space, both for pedestrian and for the bicycle. So here we also play around with the folds itself in terms of, you know, like, well, everything on the other ones were like very open, very transparent. This we went the opposite, where it's very much enclosed, but then we will start to think about different openings and patterns. So then you see the whole bridge more like an object, you know, instead of like in pieces, but this is more like an object. So that's a way for us to like really take ideas and bring it to the end, like really push the boundaries. And this is the last one, which is the modern bridge. Now, I personally like all of them. So I'm so happy that I'm going to get opinions from everybody and I do not have to choose. So that's a good thing. Yes. So here, when you're going through the highway, you get to see this thing. And I hope, hope, hope we are going to have a color for this. So before I jump. Just provided a very good description of the visuals of these three concepts, just wanted to provide a little summary of the structural elements. We're very early in the structural design, the actual, the science behind the beauty here. I just want to point out that the land bridge, this, the superstructure would be comprised of a horizontally curved steel plate. I girders that before in the cross section that had traditional cross frames between each of those girders. So synonymous to your typical highway grade separation structure. The trust, of course, is very visible that the structural system is a trust. That can come in several different forms. We just had one depicted there, but we could play around with how the members are oriented and how many members there are and how few members there are. And also introduce, you know, subtle curvature or, you know, some more angles right now. It's what you see there. But obviously your feedback will be important to that particular configuration as far as what you'd like to see in a covered bridge type of structure. And then the third structure is U shaped steel plate girders. So modern sleek curved, there'd be two or three in the cross section. So that would be a very clean superstructure from the user's point of view from the interstate. So again, very early in the engineering, we come after all the visuals are complete. And then we'll put all of our, all the numbers to that. But I just wanted to point out in case anybody has any comments or in terms of mixing and matching you like this, you don't like that. We'll take all those, all that input. Aaron. Yeah, there is. So we talked about the budget for the project earlier and construction of a bridge structure is going to be more expensive than construction of the approach retaining walls. And so from a cost standpoint, it makes sense at this point to to consider the retaining walls. And I think as we look at not only the construction costs, but as we look at the long term maintenance cost as well. Cheaper cost to maintain the retaining walls and the path, the elevated pathway versus an additional bridge structure. Alright, thanks, Eddie and Chris. As we break and head to the hallway, we're not going to do that yet. But Eddie, Chris, Fred and Zariah will be the bridge group and they'll be standing by the boards. We've got we've got a few, a few more minutes of chatting in here first. But that will be the team standing by the bridge boards. So I'm going to ask Mike and Mark to come up. Aaron, this is Alan from the remote side just. Are you there, Alan? Yes, can you hear me? Yes. I just wanted to say that if any question is asked in the main reading room, if you could just restate it before you answer. Because microphones aren't picking up questions for the rest of the folks on. Yes, thank you. Sorry, I should have reputed that question. It was there was a question about the previous question was about why there were approach pathways that were elevated on retaining those versus approach spans to the to the bridge and peer supported. Apologize to that. Okay, we're going to talk now about the pathway approach and landscaping. Got Mike and Mark, both landscape architects who have been working on on the pathway. Thanks, Aaron. So the pathway approaches in the landscaping, not quite as exciting as what Eddie was talking about with the bridge piece. But for us, what the way we're looking at it is Eddie described this is going to be sort of like a statement piece for the city. And so really this is like an extension of the bridge on the sort of the east and west, west sides of the project. And there was sort of this really galvanizing thing as we explored the options and the geometry of the bridges and the approaches. For the project and that really we wanted to be like an extension of sculpture and sort of art in the landscape. And so you can see the the bridges, the pathway approaches sort of on the east and the west sides are sort of sinuous and they're curving and sort of working with the geometry of the bridge as it crosses over. And so when the when the bridge is over the interstate there, it's approximately 29 to 30 feet in the air. And so these walls on the left and right side are going to be elevated. And so one of the ideas is to use earth as a landform also in a sculptural way so that we sort of rise the grade up against the wall and have it fall down. So you're not seeing just a severe large retaining wall that really the landform is a sculptural element. And then also working with the landscaping and do really broad bands of sort of native shrubs and pollinator habitat that also work with the landform and make a sculptural element for those pedestrian approaches. So that it all really becomes this sort of interesting sort of continuous experience as you approach the bridge and then sort of use the east west connectors on both sides. I think just to add, we're stressing that the horizontal curvature we're going to be blending with the vertical curvature. So it is one piece of sculpture. And then the large masses of the shrubs, the trees, they're all designed to be seen at exit speeds of 40 to 60 miles an hour. So they have to be long and not real spotty. They're big swaths. The design of it was made for looking at it as you're moving fast with a car. So as you're coursing across the landscape, they're not real spotty little chunks of plants. They're like 100 to 200 feet long, a big, sinuous swaths. So it's made for speed to be viewed. I'm just curious why you were designing a visual state for the driver rather than the pedestrians. But maybe that's not what you're saying. It sort of is, but the experience on the bridge is the trees are going to be right there. The canopies will be right near you. So you won't notice that, but it'll work for the drivers as well. Gosh, thank you. I was just going to tell you to repeat the question. The question was about the landscaping and related to the user experience on the interstate versus the user experience of the bridge and the pathway. And I think it's important to point out that while we are looking to prioritize that user on the pathway and on the bridge, it's still an important aspect of this project that it be visually pleasing and aesthetic to a user of the interstate as well. So it's designed with both in mind. I wanted to go back. There was a question earlier about connections. So I wanted to just go back to that. If you can imagine this pathway and the bridge location, we need to get up about 20 feet, maybe a little bit higher than 20 feet in the air. So there's a gradual ascent up to the bridge, very gradual. It's about four and a half percent. And in order to get all the way up and over the interstate, we need to start that slope back in this area and back in this area here. So as we look at the cross sections on the right here, we've got a pathway at grade, which we'll have at the beginning of the pathway. We've got an elevated pathway, which is vertical concrete walls. And that's what Mark was explaining and Mike was explaining with the landforms against them. And that would be the elevated portion of the pathway. And then we've got the bridge. In this case, it's the modern bridge, the tub girders that Chris was explaining. From a connection standpoint, we're showing a connection to the University Mall property, which is this ramp that would extend to the south, and it would connect into that University Mall property at the right of way there. And then there's a future connection that would be planned in this area to the Corey Hill development. So there's an existing roadway that goes to the end of this building. This is the building that's in construction right now. And there would be, in the future, the city has on their official map, a road that connects from Corey Hill through the Staples Plaza and to Williston Road. And so this makes a logical connection point to connect this shared use path with the shared use path along that roadway. There's also a planned connection at the Comfort Inn and Homewood Suites property when the project comes back down to grade. And although not necessarily a connection off the pathway, it's worth mentioning that this project includes reconstruction of the pathway along Williston Road and down Dorset Street to the first driveway intersection. That section of sidewalk is currently about five feet wide. South of this intersection of this driveway, there's a full shared use pathway there. So this project would improve the pathway around the front of CVS and onto Dorset Street, a wider width, a little bit safer, better sight lines for bicycles and pedestrians. Question? On the connections, some of the sketches reflect the comments at the last workshop that were advocating for access from the south closer to the bridge. And some don't. And could you address that piece of how you've just described the path, the access really not being all near the bridge from the south but rather having this force in the ride up pretty far north before you enter the country. Is it a real option or does the engineering and the elevation just make that impossible? Are you asking on the east side or the west side? Thinking of it primarily from the west side. Yeah, so the question was about the connection on the west side and I believe if I understood you correctly why it's so far to the north and not in this stretch closer to the bridge. Some of the sketches seem to indicate there weren't bad options available, but you're saying it isn't. So we have explored some of those options. Some of those options have been discussed with property owners. Some of the options we've sketched out. And part of this project is with the funding and the raise grant, there is a time frame when the design has to be finished by and the construction has to start. And so as we work with the property owners, we still need to continue those discussions. But we didn't want to show something that may or may not happen from a connection standpoint to the Corey Hill property. I think it's also important to point out to go back to the connection study that's going to occur. So even if there is not a connection as part of the bridge project here, that doesn't preclude having a connection in the future as part of that other study. Yes, question. So in reference to that, could you put some pre-thought for yourself on either side so that if you do get approval to have it, that some of the structure would already be ready so you wouldn't have to revamp some of the existing structure? Yeah, so the question was, could the team put more thought into those potential future connections so we wouldn't need to reconstruct a portion of the structure or the pathway to make those connections in the future? We have put quite a bit of thought into a potential connection along this stretch. I think our design could accommodate that in the future if it came to fruition. On the eastern side, we are planning to construct this ramp as part of the project. So the connection to the University Mall. We are working with the owner of the mall on where best to make that connection. We'll be providing the pathway, the city will be providing the pathway up to the right of way and then the owner of the mall will continue the pathway through their property and what their circulation will be. So are you saying that the Corey Hill owner is not cooperating with you right now? I'm not saying that. Have you had contact with that owner? We have, yeah. We've had quite a few discussions and we're back and forth on where best to make those connections. They have their property owner, they're working on their development plan and we're trying to make it all fit together in one big puzzle. And they understand the benefit of this bridge to the city in both cities? Correct. Was there another couple other questions? So we're talking about node 5 that connects from the University Mall and we're talking about there, yeah. So we're, I understand that the University of all property is going to handle that connection but where do you anticipate coming in to get, like do you go around the back by interference or around the front? Like, I don't know, I'm just almost never trying to be a Christian. So I don't really know what that looks like. Yeah, that's a good question. So the question is, with the University Mall connection, where is that connection to the mall supposed to be occurring? Because it is the backside of the mall. And so we don't know too much about it, but Alana, so I'll just repeat that. So this ramp would end very close to the rear entrance to the mall and it also is connecting to the service road that runs around the mall. Identity. It just seems like it's such a beautiful thing we're creating here and then we have from staples to CVS, it just doesn't look clean at all. And I don't think it would require that much money and I'm just wondering if it is all possible to put it in as part of this whole design. Rather than wait for the city planning on the route 2. When I don't think it requires a lot, I think it just requires maybe a filling of the cement that's already present. And maybe making that cement, if the modern bridge wins out with the color, making that divider that color or something. You know, just I wanted to point out there, if it wasn't so much money to also just make that an additional part of all of this planning. You're talking about the concrete on the existing bridge. So the question was about... Thank you. It would be the median. Yeah, I think that's a good comment. It's outside of the scope of this project, but it is a good comment and something that the team will record. Are you going to repeat it? Oh, sorry, yeah. I was going to repeat it. I got sidetracked. The comment was about the median concrete along U.S. Route 2, Williston Road. And if we're putting in this beautiful bicycle pedestrian bridge and could there be some maintenance work done on the concrete as part of the project, and potentially to color coordinate with the proposed bridge. I was just wondering if you could speak to the intersection of Williston Road where it may be in the future. So we can figure out that intersection and how this will play into that. Yeah, the question was about the intersection of Williston Road and Dorset Street. And I'll say that's also outside of the scope of this project. We're working on the pathway, so all the work will be in board of that intersection. I do believe that you could talk to Alana about other questions kind of offline and Tom about any potential future plans for the intersection. Yeah, that's a great question. The question is about wintertime and maintenance and how are we ensuring that the bridge is also welcoming for use in the wintertime. So this is also partially a question for Tom as the head of Public Works. But I'll say our team has been in discussion with the Public Works Department about ongoing maintenance needs for the bridge. And part of the discussion is that without knowing the bridge that's going to be designed and constructed yet, it's hard to put together the entire maintenance plan. So some of it is going to be working with our team on what that maintenance plan looks like and what the requirements will be for clearing snow and expectations. And this will all be recorded in a plan by the city. But some of it is still to be developed. Aunty, do you want to talk about that? As Eddie's walking up here, I would also say that that would be a great comment to write down if that's something important and stick it on the bridges. So great question. And the question is what do we do during the wintertime from the architectural perspective. So the answer to that is that is something that we will work and all three of them we can do it so that and we will be very conscious about making sure this is something that is usable year round. So at this point, the three concept that we have is just a big picture. And then those like security, like accessibility, like places to sit, what kind of area to sit in, how can we make this year round? That will be a guiding factor that we will deal with and we will solve no matter which one we choose. And yeah, so I hope that answered a question. I don't know that it's fair to say which one is the most protected right now. I do think it's a very good discussion point. I do want to keep us moving forward. We've got a couple more things to talk about. And then to get out into the into the hallway to really kind of dive into some of these topics deeper with the team. One more question. The question is, assuming that the bridge is popular from both a bicycling and a pedestrian standpoint, will there be a separation of those two modes of transportation on the bridge? And there is the potential for that. And I think that's what was illustrated in the land bridge. There's one side that continues to be a shared use path. And there's another side that is kind of a slower pace kind of area to move along at a slower pace and to walk. And maybe bicycles wouldn't be allowed on that side. I think on the modern bridge, there's a similar intent, although it's not as strong as a physical barrier, it's different colors on the surface of the concrete. Okay, let's move forward here. Mike and Mark were explaining the landscape architecture. This is the Western pathway approach. And there is a little bit zoomed in version of this section where we've got the Corey Hill parking lot on the left. There's a space in between. This is all existing. The raised portion of the pathway. And then as we look further to the right, we have the I-89 on ramp. So this landform is what Mike and Mark were talking about as it starts to hide portions of that vertical retaining wall. Similar section on the eastern side, we've got the parking lot for Comfort Inn and Homewood Suites. We've got the approach pathway and then we've got the interstate ramps. Again, a zoomed in version of the section. You can see the raised pathway and again the landforms on either side to hide some of that vertical wall. So I'm going to ask Tyler Vendatouli to come up. Tyler is a local artist who is also working with our team. And Tyler's got some hands-on art to share and just want to kind of emphasize a couple points about the art. We're looking at the art from two perspectives. One is the project itself as a piece of art. So the bridge, right? And I think maybe the modern bridge, I think Eddie was talking about that is that could be an example of the bridge is a piece of art itself. The other perspective is art installations as part of the project. And so both of those are elements that we're looking at as a team and we'd like to achieve both of them actually. So I'm going to hand it off to Tyler. Hi, I'm Tyler. Tonight I brought these, I call them chunks. They're meant as a chunk of the larger piece of the project. And they're meant more to make you imagine things than it is any examples for any particular bridge. Oh, great. Yeah, we'll start with that one. So there are all these opportunities in the bridge to have cutaway panels. And so these could go between the members of the bridge so that as you're moving along the bike path, you get the projections of the leaves on it. And as you drive along the highway, you see sort of this dappled surface as you go instead of just plain sheets or like a regular pattern. So there are opportunities for paneling and along with those. So if we're taking the effort to cut out all those leaves on the paneling, you get so you're making the negative leaves. So you might as well do something with the positive leaves. So imagine you're going down the pathway and overhead is some leaves tumbling in the wind and they're creating sort of shade and something to sort of cover you. And maybe they're blowing through the breeze on the bridge itself or a different version of kind of the same thing. Imagine you're driving down the highway. If you turn a corner, let's see if I can get a light on it. So imagine that you're driving down the highway, you turn the corner, all the white stars have those reflective glass beads on them. So your headlights suddenly shine on the bridge and you get all these stars reflecting back. And then from the bike path perspective, you get all these stars shining along the bike path. So you get a user experience on the pathway as one thing and you get a highway experience that's a completely other thing. They're related, but the two of them can't see each other. I did a lot of research on South Burlington in preparation for this project and there's a lot of discussion about Ben and Jerry's. So it got me thinking about sort of fluffy clouds and things like that. So potentially these are the barriers that keep the bikes from going into the highway or the cars going into the bike path. Potentially these are some nice fluffy clouds over the highway on the bridge itself or maybe they're pressed into the retaining wall blocks. And so you get a pretty subtle version of it, pressed into the gray of the concrete. You don't next, you know, a subtler version. And specifically for the land bridge, I was thinking about what interacts well with all the plant material. And thinking about going over the highway and how interesting it is to see some flocks of birds. So this is just a tiny chunk. Imagine there's a couple hundred birds making one and then in a different place, there's a couple hundred other birds creating shade, creating interest. Maybe they're flying off the retaining walls. Maybe they're intermixed with the bridge and interacting with it. So again, all of these are ideas. They're not necessarily for any particular bridge, but they're to get us thinking about how art could be incorporated with the total project. And as we go into the breakout discussions, I would love to hear other ideas for how you would think South Burlington art could be specific to this project. Other opportunities for it to be incorporated, whether that's into the walls and the bridge itself, putting more of a focus on instead of sort of jewelry and adornments, but actually focusing more on the bridge being the art. And just what you think as a community about art for the project. One of the overall themes that I try to work with is universal joy items. So these are things that spark a little interest. They're not trying to push anybody. They're not trying to have a strong statement in one way or another. They're just things that go, ah, that's fun. And there's three main audiences that I try to work for. They're kids because if you can get kids involved, then they're going to point it out to the parents who are busy trying to go about their own day. Tourists, because if you can get a tourist to take a picture of something, they'll tell their friends about it who may want other people to come and see the thing that they're sharing with them. And then the people who drive past this every day and at the best, they don't hate it. And at the worst, they love it. It doesn't become this like gateway that they are forced to pass through each time they go in and out of the city. So that would be my goal that it's a thing at the best you don't hate. Thanks, Tyler. I think we've all got a little bit loftier goal than that. So Tyler's going to have his art chunks in the hallway here when we break. Before we do, I just want to go through a few examples and maybe get some imagination going for what some of the amenities of the project could be along the pathway, along the bridge. So I'm going to go through these very quickly. As we look at seating examples, could there be seating examples that are on the bridge or that are on the pathway? We do want areas of rest so that people can pause if they need to rest, if they need a break or to be able to sit and relax. So a number of different styles of seating. This is from right outside. And then shelter examples as we think about the pathway. Do we want areas where we maybe want a little bit of shade or does this go with the seating? And there's a number of different materials and colors. Here's a green roof. This is a perforated roof, but they're also in the shape of these leaves. This is another leaf, but it's solid. An example of a shelter. And then railings. There's a lot of railings needed for this project along the bridge, along the elevated walkway. And what are the railings that we think are going to be enjoyable? There's a glass railing. Could that be providing a little bit more open feeling, but also protection from the wind, protection from some of the winter elements? There's open mesh railings. There's cable, stainless steel cable railings. This is also from right outside. There's decorative panels that could be part of the railing. There's interpretive signage that could be part of the railing as well. And then we've also, we've talked a little bit about the vertical retaining walls that we've got. And rather than just a plain concrete wall, there are different colors and there are different textures that could be cast as part of that concrete. So are there certain textures that would be enjoyable? So just some ideas to consider as you're walking around and talking to folks in the hallway. So I think we'll split now and folks that are in person out into the hallway, our team will be out there. There's kind of three stations. There's all the way on, if I'm looking out on the left-hand side is the pathway and approach station. Kind of in the middle will be the bridge station and at the front will be the art station. So we'll break now. Let's plan to come back here at about 7.15 or so. You mean 8.15 Aaron? Sorry, 8.15. You got it. And then virtually we'll also have virtual breakout station working through the mural board. Yeah, I was thinking you asked us to say something at the beginning of the breakout session, so I was a little bit confused there. But it doesn't take much sometimes. See her filling her water bottle? There she is. Ready for the next spell. I thought you were filling your water bottle. Oh, okay. Alright, so I'm going to share back from Aaron here to show the mural. Right? I will drive and you can take notes and we can all solicit some feedback. Let's give people a few minutes here to mingle out and then we'll get started so everybody online can hear us a little bit better. We just want to jump in there and say that in a few minutes are people in there. Are we on mute? I don't think you are not on mute. Yeah, I thought we were being heard. I said that for the crowd. Hi, everybody. I just want to make sure you didn't say anything where you thought your mic was muted, that's all. I'm very conscious of hot mics, Alan. No worries. Okay, good, good. Alright, I'm going to take the screen back from, oh shoot, I did this wrong again. I want to take the mural screen. Alright, and then I guess we can do some quick introductions, get everybody online, quick synopsis of what we're doing, and then we'll open it up. Alright, yeah, good evening everybody. My name is Wayne Simmons and I work for VHB. I'm a senior structural engineer and I'm going to be co-facilitating this breakout session for taking comments on the mural board. You just heard the presentation and we're looking for anybody to put comments about what they liked or what they didn't like on the mural board. And before we say anything else, I'm going to turn it over to Sierra to introduce herself. Hi, everyone. My name is Sierra. I also work at VHB. I'm a transportation engineer and I have actually been quite involved in this project thus far, attending most of, if not all, the focus groups. So I've heard a lot of the input that we've had so far and I'm really excited to see what you guys have tonight. Hi, and I'm Jeff. I'm also at VHB and just to hear here to help this group and work with you all to solicit whatever feedback we can on the three concepts that we heard from in the first meeting. So I think a reminder, if anybody did attend the first meeting, we had a similar format for our virtual group. We shared this mural, which we're sharing on our screen now and there is a link to that in the chat. So if you know where to find the chat in this Zoom meeting, there's a link to this mural. If you can join this mural session from any web browser by clicking on that link, it'll prompt you to basically join as a guest and you get assigned a fun animal name visiting Bear. I had a funny one. I'm visiting shrimp, which is just rude. And I encourage all of you to try to join and this is a fun interactive way for you virtually to do what a lot of the folks here are doing in person. So during our last presentation, folks are taking notes on post-its and they're going to go out into the hallway where these same images are being posted up physically. You have the same opportunity tonight to create your own post-it notes and place your thoughts on the board. So if you don't know how to do that, if you're seeing my screen, I'll show you real quick. On the very left side of the mural, I'm going to browse to this left side. There's a little text box. Sierra, correct me if I do this wrong and you get a bunch of sticky notes. So I'm going to drag this quick little sticky note here and I'm going to type my comment that said this was cool if there was something that I liked. When you can place that anywhere you want on the board, it could be on a picture of the bridge or a picture of some of the art or some of the example walls. This is really your opportunity to share your thoughts, pros and cons about different concepts. So if anybody has any questions or just doesn't feel comfortable using the mural, feel free to also just unmute yourself and make that comment as well. And Sierra and Wayne and I will help place that comment on the board. Yeah, this is also just a pure platform for open discussion about this and feel free to ask questions. It doesn't have to be just writing down comments or telling us comments. Feel free to ask whatever, participate in discussion back and forth. Anything, any feedback here is welcome. I'm going to keep this mostly zoomed out, but if anybody has a topic they want to talk about, we'll be able to zoom in so everybody can see on the screen as well. So just let us know what you'd like to see or feel free to just add your post-it notes and just let everyone know. You do have the ability to use the raise hand feature. It's hidden under the reactions button inside zoom but feel free to raise your hand. We can take you off mute. You can ask a question, share a comment or anything like that. I'm seeing a lot of a lot of posts that's get added. So this is great. All right, so we have a hand up. All right. So, yep, Chris, yeah, please go ahead and share your comment or question. Thanks. Yeah, on the land bridge. I was listening on a phone at when it was shown originally so is that I see there's a person walking kind of on the right and I see people sitting on a bench on the left. Was there one part that was recycling one for walking or is it like one way, one way direction or how does that work. The intent there is is to separate the folks that are using the bridge to just get across like the bikes and pedestrians using the crossing and decree a divide using plantings and seats to allow people a space to kind of maybe go slower or to sit on the benches and be out of the out of the pedestrian vehicle traffic. They're not necessarily two lanes that are one way. It's kind of a different purpose. Okay, thanks just in the in the image of the people like sitting on the bench as a person walking on that right hand side so that I'm visiting that probably cycle or something like that and not pedestrians on that. Yeah, I think it's just coincidental in terms of the way that people are shown utilizing the bridge. Yeah. Okay, cool. Thank you. All right, Chris broke the ice. There's got to be more questions in the crowd. Thank you, Chris. And we certainly if if anybody has any comments that they want to share with others certainly we appreciate all the sticky notes and those were definitely recorded and will be used but anybody wants to share any we can certainly take those. All right, we got another hand raised. Is it Avila. Yes, it's Avila. Thank you. You're welcome. I guess I'm, I'm the current chair of the bike ped committee. I don't speak on behalf of the committee but I will say that we frequently entertain complaints from pedestrians about bikes whizzing by. And especially on Market Street, which is a shared use path the markings are not clear that it is shared use and the pedestrians are really annoyed when the bikes whizz by them, even though it's a pretty wide space. What we've found that is really necessary is some kind of demarcation on the surface. And I love the idea of having the different kind of color coding and listening to the presentation it sounded like it was color coded for people that were really more had an area of respite and maybe we're sitting a little bit more or standing and looking versus people that were actively using the path and I'd really advocate for three zones. I'd look for a bike zone, a pedestrian zone and then a respite zone depending on sort of the general final concept, but just we, we entertain people complaining from the public, all the time. And I would just prefer that and make that comment and it doesn't matter what bridge concept you finally end on that would be a key feature in my mind. Yeah, it sounds like an applicable concept to all three of these themes the more tack or different visibility separation for those three different user groups. Great. Thank you. Actually, I just, I did have a question sort of a follow up on that comment. Do you think that that the geometry of any of the options. Not just a width but the geometry could also address that is is your experience that these complaints come from areas that are that are really like straight where a bicyclist can get a lot of speed or I'm just wondering if there's anything in of the, the different options that you think could address that concern a little bit better. I think I can't think of like a structural things but I love structural solutions. I think it's really, I think in my mind is demarcation so either color or sort of subtle texture differences that can actually help texture differences will help you slow down because it's less pleasant to walk or bike on. But I think they have to be subtle because there's a point where it's not really fun to walk on it either. That might be one way to consider it. If you're not like color coding. I just want to think about that. But do you have a, do you, were you thinking of some other version of well I just kind of just kind of thinking along the lines of what was discussed about the approaches being sinuous and have some vertical elevation, whether you think some of that will be a natural sort of traffic or speed or, or, or not. I just, I'm curious about where your complaints are coming from in the past. Are you seeing any common traits in the areas that you're having those conflicts. I have a feeling it might not matter. Only because that you bike and the motorized like scooter are being used more and more, and the elevation is not an issue when you ride a pedal assist e bike. Okay, yep, you can whiz up a hill easily 20 miles an hour. If you're not thoughtful about how you're sharing the path. Okay, no, that's a good comment. I appreciate that. It's not even you want people to commute and use it for commuting like that and you want them to use a pedal assist e bike. It's a great commuting bike, but you were like people have to be considerate and you have to share and structure where everyone has their place helps you share. Someone on the land bridge option wrote a sticky note that said the land bridge is very, very appealing. I was just hoping if someone wanted to elaborate on what makes it appealing to you. And you can elaborate in a sticky if you're, if you're camera shy for sure. So not a bad idea to we could focus on the land bridge a little bit here and try to get some thoughts. They're definitely seeing a lot of notes, which is great. Pretty much has any follow up points to add here. What they like or don't like about the land bridge, you kind of turn our attention there for a few minutes, and then give each concept their own time. Land bridge showing a lot of, you know, curvature that separated space for the respite area that you mentioned rain, natural plantings, some of this soft toothed jagged fence in the front here. Try to zoom in a bit on these so everyone I can follow. Loving the mesh, native plants, separating bikes and pedestrians. A lot of positive comments here by some pollinators. It seems like a lot of the comments are definitely geared towards the user experience and not the driver experience on the interstate. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. How do we think a land bridge looks from the interstate? Any thoughts on that? It's definitely an interesting view. Where is it? The photorealistic one? Yeah, here it is. I'll zoom in on this a bit. You can see those like sawtooth edges in the front coming from the south. Oh, I see another hand up. Yeah, feel free to unmute yourself. Thanks. It's me, Havell again. I just like, I think I just prefer this to writing sticky notes. I like the look of it. And I love the greenery. And I kind of wonder where the sawtooth, if those sawtooth areas are a natural place to put areas of respite. Because it's a little bit off the rest of the path. So I think that's kind of, I like, I do like the look of it. One question, and I love the idea of the greenery. I just love that, but I'm just wondering what the maintenance is going to look like. How are they going to get watered? And the other part is that's a bridge and it's really cold. And I think you're going to only be able to put annuals instead of perennials in as a, as a gardener. And I'm just wondering about maintenance costs, because that's a big area to landscape over and over. And I can't imagine there's many things that are going to overwinter well when it's minus 30. And I'm pretty sure the roots are going to get minus 30. It's not going to be that protected by soil if it's all air around them underneath. Yeah, this is definitely an ongoing conversation that we've already been having with the city on maintenance. This has been brought up before on the concern with maintaining the plants, watering and who's going to do the maintenance. And the city is going to take on most of the maintenance efforts here. And they are the ones that are definitely bringing up those same concerns. So it is all being talked about and worked through. But yeah, those are very valid concerns. Great. Like the idea of different colored services for bikes and pedestrians. Netherlands all bike paths are red. Great. Love to see this one filled with native plants. Concerns about upkeep and watering and mulching. It could be a potential project to partner with youth groups or schools to give you the opportunity to do some gardening. All great thoughts. Yeah, this is really good feedback. Excellent use of the tool. Cool. So should we focus perhaps on the next concept? We don't have too much time here. So I want to make sure we have enough time for everybody. I think we should jump to the Vermonti bridge. Let's jump to Vermonti bridge. This is our linear span looking bridge. So we've got like two linear spans, less curvature in this one. The trust structure around the outside sort of resembling an enclosure similar to a covered bridge was some of the design intent here. And let's look at some of these other images and any other thoughts people have. Fails to look traditional. I much prefer the other two designs. Didn't expect this design from the written description. So more enclosure would be preferred on this option. Color coded paving here. Similar comment to the last one again for kind of similar to all three concepts trying to separate those bicycles and pedestrians a bit more. Feels like a cattle shoot. Traditional. Remind me of a New York City bridge. This is a photorealistic image. I always like these. A nice perspective into what this will look like in the real world. Image from the ground. Please do share your what you do's and don't likes about the Vermonti bridge. Perhaps just less opinion on this one. All right. I'll jump on to the next one. Let's look at the modern bridge. And then there's actually a lot more to talk about here. We got all kinds of product elements. How are we doing on time? We've got about 15 minutes. All right. Let's go through the modern bridge. What do we got here? I worry this bridge won't age well and will look dated quickly. Modern bridges can be a time capture of it. I like how this looks over for the land bridge. So positive and up the favorite in this commenter. Oh, I wrote this one. This is this was cool. I think I just placed that one randomly. That might have been me, but I don't think this one's cool. That's my opinion. This one's my favorite. That was not me. I like the pop of color and the concern is shade. True less shade shown in this option, but I would also just keep an open mind here that the, you know, some of the art that was talked about, you know, you know, these, some of these concepts can be kind of cross pollinated a bit. Well, I wonder also if the person that wrote that comment may want to elaborate a little bit. The concern is shade. Is that too much shade or not enough shade? Question. My interpretation is that they had there's not enough shade in this option. I kind of took it the other way because maybe there's too much shade. I don't know. Well, feel free to clarify if you're on still or want to modify your, but I think that's a, in a, in a way, this is the most covered option. So there is more shade. So maybe that is the concern. Yeah. And that is, that is a concern that we've heard before is the shade. And just know that this bridge is going to be very well lit. There's going to be lighting along the whole thing for, from a safety perspective. And there's also going to be the opportunity to put in some aesthetic lighting. So some unique styles there as well, in addition to, you know, lighting that would be required for safety reasons. All right. More images here. This is okay, but I like the land bridge better. I'd like the bridge now. I don't like seeing ID9 traffic whizzing by. I like the traffic being less visible. This comment is placed near the modern bridge. I assume they're, the commentator is saying that they like this option because the traffic is less visible. Is that fair to say? There's a kind of screen. I think that makes sense because this is the most screened version I think. Yeah. The others have very open. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to correct us if we misinterpreted that. But I think I would agree. This one is screened. Yeah. I think that was mine. I don't know if I get there. Maybe if it's enough. I don't know if that's my thought. I do like it a little more enclosed. I don't like looking at all the traffic whizzing by. And to be fair, I am afraid of heights. And so I hate the heights. And we talked about being inclusive. And there's other people besides me who are afraid of heights and just being able to visually not look at all the traffic and be comfortable. But I do like it. I can totally understand that you want to see some of the view and you want to see some of the other things. So like a full wall or shoot feeling is probably not pleasing for everyone either. Yeah. Fair point about heights. You won't be alone and. I'm being afraid of heights. Like the clean lines of this bridge traffic is heavy here. We don't need a bridge. That is too interesting. So clean kind of preferential to the minimalist design. You know, it's simple, clean. Not too many things to see. Being able to see as much of traffic below is comforting in this option. Probably looks the nicest from the highway of the three. So that's a perspective from the driver. Best looking for the driver according to this person. I would like to see more shades, maybe the same comment or absolutely somebody else saying the same thing. Yeah. Or the opposite of what you thought Wayne, right? Yeah. That's, that's, um, yeah. This much clearer for sure. Great place to add the art to the signs with cut out leaves and shapes. So this, this option here has some opportunity to add cut out shapes in the art. It does. That's good feedback. All right. Cool. So we talked a bit about bridges, um, three different concept bridges. There's some other concepts that we do want to give everyone an opportunity to comment on. So I'll just kind of browse around here and see what we find. I, I, I'd love to, I'd love to talk about the railing. Sure. I like that just because it's going to have to have a railing and it's going to be a really important feature. And I'm interested in just some input on what people really value in the railing. If, if there are any comments. Yeah. Questions folks have some of these here. So we've got this like, um, was this like a mesh, a mesh rally with a wooden top plate? Please avoid anything that looks too much like chain link prison feds. That's a good comment. Uh, over here we've got a similar mesh, um, very safe while keeping an open feeling. So some preference for an open feeling in this, in this rallying design. I like this railing vest shields traffic, but not too enclosed feeling just right. So this is the decorative, uh, rallying. I thought we saw some cool art examples of how this could be incorporated into the bridge. You know, I also would, would, you know, have folks think about what they like about the heights because there's different examples there of the heights of the railing. Yeah. Um, you know, we heard from one person just a moment ago that if you're scared of heights, maybe you're more partial to the tall railing or right, you know, I also like this. If we keep with a tree maple field, so that interpretive art, or decorative art panels with maple fuel, those are great. There's a new one. I'll look to finish typing before we put them on the spot. A lot of different concepts here to look at and think about. Again, we want to stress these are, you know, things that can be, you know, really combined with other concepts, not fixed to one concept necessarily here. Keep an open mind when the railing is a very important safety feature and one, you know, could add to needs to be there. So it's good to get to get some ideas around that. Yeah, definitely going to have a rail. Yeah. Yeah. Surprisingly, the minimum height for the railing is actually only 42 inches, which is pretty low. If you think about walking over a bridge or biking over a bridge, that is AASHTO standards. We would not put a railing that low, but it is curious because we do, I am curious because we do have a lot of railings here that show tall and short. And not having to go to the minimum or all the way up the sides, but where people feel comfortable. And we have gotten some feedback so far, but... Yeah, I think the, you know, comments about winter and making the bridge and biking let itself to a taller railing, right? And that wind barrier and this comment here looks like it is a nice over traffic, cuts the wind in the winter, and this is the open glass railing. Yeah, we did also hear about the concern about winter use, you know, in the open sessions. So that's good. Well, you got a few more minutes. So if you want to grab, put some comments in there about the rail, that'd be great. I just want to call out something in the chat. I don't know if you guys saw it or not. About railing will have to make sense for snow, allowing it to melt and plowing. I think it's similar to what we were just mentioning. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that is something that the city has brought up of where we can, how they're going to maintain it in the winter and where the snow storage is going to be and what types of types of vehicles they're going to need to put on the bridge to be able to make this a year round use bridge. And VTrans is unlikely to appreciate snow being pushed onto the interstate from abroad. Not an option. That is a concern, right? How are we going to deal with that? Yeah, yeah. I just want to call out. We see how well I still see your hand raised. I'm not sure if that's a carryover from before. And that new got it. Okay. No, I have more comments. I've noticed that bridge. There's frequently graffiti on it and there's frequently political signs that are hung over the edge of it. And both of them are concerning to me. Just because they hate to see, I'd like to see the edges high enough to hopefully limit the amount of graffiti that might be happening, at least especially on the maybe artistic elements on the railings. The signs. They think they're like papers, they don't know sheets or whatever that get hung for different reasons. But I just would think that that's just some of the things that happen frequently. And it's maybe something to consider. So you're talking about people being able to access the railings over the railing to do something on the outside that the cars would see. The current railing is fairly low. And so it's easy to do that. And I don't object to political things necessarily, but the graffiti just would bother me. Because I'm picturing like that beautiful glass, but I just can see it being spray painted, you know, within two weeks of being put up. And then it just, you lose the aesthetic. Right. Thank you. Yeah, good comment. Yeah. All right. I'm going to zoom back a bit here and see if we have any other content to digest as a group here. So we talked about railings and barrier. How about we go up to, to walls? Is that worth looking at? There's so walls are going to be a, we talked about how that's going to be an important component of this project as the pathway approaches the bridge span. We're not going to have bridge spans that don't go over the interstate. So the, the raised walkway to get up to that height is going to have to have some walls and the walls are an opportunity for lots of artistic opportunities, design opportunity. And so your opinions on these walls and what they should look like are highly valuable as a, you know, it'll be a prominent feature of the project. So we've got some great samples here and already some comments coming in. Let's start here in the left. So this one's got some leaf pattern, it comes up for art integrated into concrete walls. Yes, absolutely. A lot of opportunity there. The, the, the flexibility for this type of wall system does lend itself to a lot of different creative patterns. Yeah. It's precast concrete and the, the patterns are, are integrated into the forms. They can be repeated over and over again. Or as you can see in that middle frame, you can have a few different patterns that carry over between the different panels, but there's an awful lot of flexibility there in what could be done. This one looks similar to the flowers on the walls of Bode Hall, UVM. Love the texture and might play this adds to the area. Yeah. So a lot of, a lot of positive feedback here on walls. These are sick. Cool. I like the maple leaf designs. Yeah. I think, I think what the crowd is saying is that they like the, the more than just boring retaining walls. And this is really getting to the heart of the comment from Tyler about making the bridge art itself. And integrating it. So, if anybody has any thoughts, we'd be happy to have you include those as well. There's a great comment here talking about a preferred ivory greenery cover. So we are taught, we have talked mostly about concrete wall panels, but maybe incorporating some more greenery into that. To the design. That's a great comment. The wall are an active bunch. This is great. Yeah. Lots of comments. I know that, you know, if I don't read your post it, that doesn't mean it didn't get placed. So all these will be reviewed later. Mostly reading for the entertainment value for all of us here today. Yes. We've got a little less than five minutes on this session before people start coming back into the room. Sarah, what's our next topic? We should look out and see where all the comments are. I see a lot in seating. And if there's something you'd make, want us to make sure that we cover, just raise your hand and say, can you go to some section and we'd be glad to spend some time there. Let's talk about seating real quick before we, I see a lot of comments here. Have an accessible place to rest is a great idea, especially support older adults. Yes. Yeah. As a long bridge is a lot, a lot of length to cover. So having a seating is a great idea. Good to have a place for folks to rest. Sceptical people will want to spend much time around the noisy interstate. Perhaps the areas of respite should be located as far away from the interstate as possible. I would say, I mean, there's consideration for respite areas on the approach pathways, right? There is on both the approach and on the bridge. And I think if you look on the land bridge, the respite bench is in the middle of the bridge, which may mute some of that, but I think that's still a good comment. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And yeah, definitely considering the respite opportunities, not just directly over the interstate. I like the clean lines wouldn't look good with the modern bridge. Great. Some other comments on some seating ideas due to road noise. Maybe the seating should be limited to the approach areas. Yep. Similar comments. Good one. No one will probably be hanging out on this bridge, but there is a need for rest from an accessibility standpoint. So perhaps just a place to sit. You're basically saying it's more of a functional. Yes. Yes. Consideration and aesthetic, you know, a lot of seating without taking too much space. They like this design right here. This is a sweeping bench. Great. Yeah. I heard some themes though in a fun, you know, not necessarily needing to hang out over the interstate for a long periods of time, just wanting places to sit. Yeah. Rest. Some common comments. Still a couple of minutes. Anybody has anything they want to shout out loud or make me zoom too. I'm happy to zoom in. We've got lots of other comments. We could look over here. Potentially ask some thoughts about, you know, which users would use a pedestrian versus bicycles. Discussion about connections. Will there be areas for bikes to be parked in the area? That's an interesting question. I don't know if I have an internet. We just talked about bike parking in and around the project area. Yeah. I think the humor is really close and there's definitely going to be amenities at the U mall. So I know that like someone brought up a drinking fountain, for instance, but and like, you know, the U mall has restrooms available for the public use. So the proximity to the U mall is definitely a consideration when thinking about amenities that we want to offer on the path and the bridge itself where we do believe that it could be an opportunity for people to, you know, it could be somewhat of a destination. I know some people love gazing at the cars, watching them drive on the interstate. It's somewhat mesmerizing, right? And some people might just be using it as a commute. So. I'm sorry, sir. I just interrupt, but I'm thinking if the commenter is still on and they have an idea where there should be parking, this would be a great opportunity to say, this is where I would use parking for bikes or. Yeah. Feel free to supplement that. Not just a question about weather, but how they would use parking. Yeah. It could be helpful because. I think it's somewhat related to the connections as you were saying, but. Yeah, I guess a good, good point there, Wayne, to say that use your post-it notes as an opportunity to, to push your input into this. So if you have a thought, you know, rather than the question, make a suggestion and that can be, you know, fed back to the design team. Some comments here on the art wall. Leaves. A lot of people like leaves. All kinds of leaves. Yes. The cutouts with natural elements. Really like to cut out designs. Sharp bed. Are there sharp edges to be concerned about kids? Yeah. That's an interesting point. Question to the artists. I'm going to give back to the artists to be sure that there are any sharp edges that kids could stick their fingers in. I would like to think that, you know, we could find a technique to cut those out that would, would limit that. But I think it is a good consideration that, you know, we need to make sure that kids can't put their hands in things and get them stuck in. Yeah. Yeah. All right, folks, it sounds like the doors are opening. We're about to resume our conclusive section of our, our meeting tonight. But Alan, is this going to still be open for a while for people to finish commenting? I believe the meal meal. Yeah. Your whole board is open. Okay. I'll look to Sierra to kind of comment on that because I think you're the author of it. But if you want to share with folks, either if it's open indefinitely or for a certain amount of time. Yeah. I mean, we're, we're keeping the posters up at the city hall for I think two weeks. So we can keep the mural board up for as long as those are up. So even if you, you know, don't have time to visit the city hall, you can still comment on the same things on this page and feel free to share this link around. So I think everyone should be able to access and edit from this link. Perfect. Thank you. Great. And thanks everybody for all the feedback. This was a really active session. Yeah. Thanks all. All right. Thank you. You want to take back over. Yeah. Presentation. We got a lot of feedback. Yeah. Those are a lot of posts. Really? People. We're a lot of opinions. It's great. Great. And or a bit of a drill. So. Okay. Well, Yeah. There's. The mural open. So. Like super high level. Two minutes. Yeah. I mean, the microphone down. Sure. What would it be hard if I just sat here and then I can have my computer open and I can just read some of the. Like, Solid if the stickies. Yeah. So I think it's safe to say that the way in which it was pretty popular, but we got a lot of people. Okay, thanks everybody. I think those were both very active sessions, both here in person and virtually, a lot of really, really good feedback. I heard a lot of good conversations happening and really, really appreciate all of your feedback and want to thank you for being here tonight. We've got about 10 minutes left. We're just going to close things up here quickly. I got it in the same time. Thanks. So very quickly, just a quick summary of the breakout stations. I'm going to ask Eddie to come up to talk about the bridge design concepts and what you heard in your conversations. So thank you so much for so many and so much comments. And right now, we will need to like digest them again, a lot of the comments are like crosswiring each other, but in most of them, we're talking about the love of having a place making opportunity. And so this includes like having picnic areas that we might want to have. Also the other one is how can we make this truly year round? And so having it feeling like it's a protected area in a secured area is very important. And also a lot of shades because you are afraid that, you know, without shade, it just will not be a place where people want to linger. And so those are like the big things right now, and I'm really excited to read everything tomorrow and hopefully we can figure out a way to merge all the comments into one exciting and joyful design. Great. Thank you, Eddie. I thought you were going to read it all tonight. Okay. I'm going to ask Mike to come up and just kind of give a summary of what he's heard as part of the pathway and pathway experience in the landscaping discussions. Okay. So a lot of discussion was about making the pathway inviting, safety, lighting, use of sort of native plant materials, a lot of discussion about sort of what the trees would be like and what the user experience is sort of buffering from the interstate, providing shade opportunities for people that are using the path. And that was basically it. But really safety and making it inviting in a place you want to go was really a galvanizing discussion. Great. Thanks, Mike. And I'm going to have Tyler come up. Did everyone get a chance to pick up the chunks and see them? Very cool. A couple of takeaways. One is sort of integrating all of the ideas into one conglomeration of ideas. Another is creating a scene so that the barriers along the highway are creating one thing and it seems like potentially with those clouds you're traveling above the clouds throughout the city. Other concerns were about graffiti and maintenance, which are good things to think about and necessary. And I don't know if people found me because I was down the end. I wasn't trying to hide. That's where my table was. But I'm excited tomorrow to read those comments. It seems like a lot of them are on the boards. And it seems like people are excited about art and the bridge and the art. Thank you. It could be that everybody just has so much confidence in Tyler. And then we had Wayne and Sierra and Jeff who were our virtual team. And we're going to ask Wayne just to give a summary of what you've heard virtually. Yeah. So the virtual session was kind of a combination of bridge approach, art, walls. So we took comments on all of those aspects. There was, I would say, the most interest and the most comments on the land bridge. Folks really liked the open feel of it. They liked the open railings. The only sort of concerns we got there were the sustainability of plants and Vermont temperatures and, you know, the maintenance. So we had very little interest in any comments on the Vermonti bridge. And then on the modern bridge, folks really liked or some of the folks really liked the more enclosed feelings. We got into a discussion a little bit about people that might be scared of heights, might find that really enclosed feeling more inviting. And then, you know, spent quite a bit of time on the retaining walls and got a lot of comments on what people liked or mostly what they liked about the different shapes that were shown. And then we had a number of comments on the art and the seating. But probably the biggest theme that we spent some time on was the concern about the conflict between high speed e-bikes, high speed bikers and pedestrians, and a bunch of ideas about how we should incorporate more colors and more sense of division on the pathways and on the bridge to give all the users more of a feeling of safety. So I don't know, Sierra, did I get everything, Jeff? You like? Okay. Great. Thank you, Wayne. And thank you to all of you for your input. It's been great. And it's really going to go towards shaping this into the vision of the community. We do want you to stay involved. This is the second of three public workshops. There will be a third workshop coming up on October 13th back here in person and virtually. And we would encourage you to participate, check the city website for updates. And if nobody saw this yet or if some people didn't see this yet, there is a virtual room that's set up. We've got the link in the presentation here. For those that are in person, there's QR codes that are on the boards in the hallway that'll take you to this virtual room where you can see a lot of the images. And there is an opportunity to provide additional comments there if you'd like. So with that, I know we had a lot of questions during the presentation, but we'll open it up to any further questions that you might have. And if there's questions that come up after you leave tonight and you're thinking about this over the course of the next week, feel free to reach out to Alana. Her contact information is here. Check the city website. We'd love to continue to get your feedback. If you have a lighter answer to the question, are you thinking of why you should report to the city? Yes. The question is on the width and the question is, are we making the facility as wide as we can within the budget? And I think there's different parts to the facility. So there's the pathway, and we are developing kind of a consistent main pathway. It's 10 feet wide paved section at the approaches with two-foot gravel shoulders on either side. Once we get to the elevated portion on the vertical walls, it'll be 14 feet wide paved so that that entire width is paved. And then across the bridges, 14 foot minimum width, and it varies. And we are looking to stay within the budget for the entire facility, but recognizing that there is value in having some different widths along the bridge and potentially along the pathway, and our team is looking at that. So we do value that varying with maintaining that minimum as well. During construction, do you have to deviate traffic from north to south or south to north? So the question is about during construction, will we need to deviate traffic on the interstate? And we haven't quite gotten that far with our planning. It is something that we're taking into consideration from a constructability standpoint. What does each of these bridges take to construct? And how will it be erected over the interstate? And how will we deviate traffic if we need to? And what will those interruptions look like? That'll become much more in focus as we get into the design phase for the project, but certainly a lot of strong coordination with the Agency of Transportation and with FHWA on all of those impacts to the interstate. So I know I didn't quite answer the question, but not quite there yet. There likely will be some traffic impacts, but we'll look to minimize it. Aaron, this is Aaron. I'm going to call out this in the chat. First one was about the next meeting confirmation, is that October 13th? Is that what it was? Correct. Thursday, October 13th. Okay. And the next one was you may have touched upon this, the overall length of the bridge, including the ramps. And then as a follow up, how much longer is the new bridge compared to the existing car bridge route? Yeah, those are good questions. So overall pathway and bridge length is about 2,400 feet in length. The existing, if you're taking the direct route across Williston Road, across the interstate, that's about, I think it's about 1,400 linear feet. So we're looking at about 1,000 more feet with this pathway and bridge, the pedestrian and bicycle only. The length of the bridge that we're proposing is in the 300 foot range, not fully defined yet. And some of the bridges are a little bit different lengths that you saw up there. Any other questions? All right. When will the bridge be fully constructed? Yeah, a question about when will the bridge be fully constructed? So our schedule is to complete the design phase of the project by the middle of 2024 so that construction will start in 2025. And we anticipate that the majority of the project would be constructed in 2025. There may be some additional cleanup and project work in 2026. Okay. Thank you all for coming tonight. Thank you for everybody attending online. Look forward to talking to you in October.