 Good evening, everybody. Thanks for joining us. My name is Matt Hogan, and I work as a virtual meeting specialist for VHB, and we're part of the team that's come together to help bring this exciting project to life. Before we get started, we wanted to let you know that this is a hybrid meeting, and the proceedings tonight are also being broadcast live on CCTV. So, hybrid meeting. What does that mean? In addition to us gathered here tonight in the room, we're also going to be joined by participants online. We'll be recording and broadcasting everything that happens in this room and sharing it with those on the virtual space and watching on CCTV. And most importantly, you're going to occasionally hear some voices and instructions coming from the air. Let me take a minute and introduce one of those voices right now, my co-worker Alan Belniak. Alan? Good afternoon. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for welcoming me into the room digitally. As Matt mentioned a moment ago, we work together to host these virtual and hybrid meetings, and we're excited to do so once again with you this evening. We've got a handful of folks in our virtual room that I'm going to let in in just a moment. Right now, the current count is seven, which is great to join the balance of you all in the room. As Matt mentioned a moment ago, we have an exciting program. There is going to be a point when you all will break up into physical breakout rooms and move. The folks here virtually will do the same thing except from the comfort of their own home. And then later on in the evening, we're all going to reconvene back in this room here again as one big group. So Matt, with that, I'm going to hand it back to you and it would now be a good time to bring our folks into the room. All right, I think we're ready. So Alan is going to bring these folks in. We'll give it just a moment for everybody to get in and get situation. Let me try that again. Get in and get situated. And now we're going to hear from Elana Blanchard, the city project manager. Hi, good evening, everyone. So welcome. Really excited to see you all here tonight. And just overwhelmed to be able to be starting this project at this stage. So I've been working for the city for 10 years and have been working on this project since nearly the beginning of that time. And we now have funding to move it forward. So that is a huge step. And glad that you're here to help us figure out how to do that. Just a few housekeeping items. There's doors behind you both to the left and the right. In the case of emergency, please use them. Bathrooms are down the hall to the left. And I just wanted to give a shout out to Travis Washington, who's helping to record this for channel 17. And you'll be able to access the recording later if you want to refresh your memory of anything. And that is, it is being live streamed. And one other item is that we do have assistive listening in this room. So if you need a device, Andrew's over there by the window, he can help you, I can help you. And we if you have a tea coil, you can turn that on and and get a direct feed into a hearing aid, or we have headphones and a receiver. And then the only other thing is that tonight, I want you to think with your heart, these guys, and I'm going to introduce them in a moment, they're going to think with their brains. They've got a lot of brain in this room. But you guys are here to think about what as a community is important to you. So Eddie Padmore, I said it really well, and she promised me a creamy and then I immediately forgot. So Eddie Padmorey Putro is from Urban Idea Lab. And she is the urban designer slash architect on this project. And she just comes from an amazing background of bridge and transportation design. So we're really excited to have her on this project. And she always says the right thing, which is kind of nice. So no pressure there. And then her colleague, Don Kinvatter. So and then it just I'm just going to work around the room. Tyler Vendettuoli is the project artist. And you may be familiar with his work, the Gooses in the Park at the Stormwater Pond for Market Street. Chris Smith is with Majesky and Masters. And they have been around for a really long time designing bridges. And Chris has worked on a ton of bridges, and we're really excited to have them involved in this project. And when I say designing, I mean the like hardcore calculation modeling, crazy stuff. So huge, huge projects. And this is we're just excited he's come here to work on our little little bridge. So and then I don't I want to say Wayne, but I could be totally wrong. Okay, so Wayne also has a bridge background. And I'm going to skip over also be here all night, because we have about 27 people. Brad Ketterling is works with sustainability and the environment for VHB. And then Aaron is where are you? Right behind me is Aaron, and he's the project manager for VHB. So he's leading the giant team of consultants. So I'm going to hand it over to him now. So thank you all for coming. All right, thank you. We're thrilled to be here tonight to kick this project off and to hear from all of you wanted to start off. This is just a slide of who's really here tonight represented. And these are the company logos. Did want to mention just FHWA is a big part of this project VTrans is a big part of this project from both the funding standpoint and from a technical guidance standpoint as well. So before we get into to the scoping study, I'm going to pass the mic over to Eddie. And she's just going to go through a few items for how the workshop is going to function tonight, the breakout sessions, kind of the initiatives there. Hi. Thank you everyone for coming here. We are so excited about starting on this project. We're outsiders, many locals, and we're going to come together trying to design something for you. And so whatever we can hear, we are here to listen and there's no wrong answer. And we just want to gauge and understand what's important, what's concerning, what's exciting. And in the end, we want to make sure this connection, this bridge is going to be joyful for everyone. And so we would love to hear the most even crazy ideas or great ideas or mundane ideas. We would love to hear all of that. I'm very happy to see that we've already started that while we were eating. So that's yay. Very good. I hope the remote people are doing the same thing. And so logistically, number one, we're going to just do a very quick presentation and then we're going to do a breakout session. The presentation is going to be very, very quick. I'm going to show some example to just give inspiration. And programmatically what we would like to do is whatever you come up with or you tell us, that's going to be the basis for us to move forward. So it is so important because it's going to help us make sure what we are going to come up is going to be something that is something that you want, something that you like. And also, this is not going to be the only time we're coming here, but now we're just going to listen. And that's all we're going to do now. Thank you. Did I miss anything? Thank you, Eddie. No, you did great. There are a couple things maybe to just expand on there. We are going to go into the breakout sessions and we are going to solicit feedback in a couple of different ways. We'll explain that further when we get into those breakout sessions. Like Eddie said, think big, think wild. No ideas or bad ideas. We want to record everything. We want to kind of get the full flavor. This is your community. This is going to be your bridge. So we want you to be proud of it when it's done. This is about listening tonight. And so we likely won't be giving too much on our thoughts. We really want to hear your thoughts. We'll be back in front of you in a couple of months and share a lot of our thoughts at that point in time. And then if you don't, if you leave the meeting tonight and you're like, oh, I've got another idea. I've got another piece of input. You can always get in touch with Alana. But also check the city website. We're going to be putting on a link to a virtual room where you can view the materials from tonight and you can view some of the input and you can give more input there. There will be a comment form. We'll have a mural board on there. So if you want to, if you want to give additional input over the course of the next week or so, that will be there as well. So very quickly, this project is, it's been around a while. There was a scoping study that took place from 2016 through 2019. And really the couple things to highlight, there was a purpose and need statement that came out of that scoping study and there was a preferred alignment for the pathway in the bridge. This is the purpose and need statement, purpose of the bridge, the purpose of the project. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but it is something that is going to guide our decision making and guide our thoughts as we advance the project and we develop concepts and we move into design. This is from the one of the scoping studies that was completed in 2018. It is available on the CCRPC website if you're interested in the scoping study. And this is the preferred alignment. It was actually approved by the city council and the pathway alignment follows the interstate ramp. So this is the southbound on-ramp, I-D-9 here, north is upward, south is at the bottom of the page. So the pathway would follow the alignment of the ramp. The bridge would be down here at the south end, south of the interchange, just where the ramps begin and then back up the other side following the ramp on the other side. We are looking to use that alignment. There are some variations obviously with geometry, but we really want to know the look and the feel that you'd like to see there, what amenities you want to see along that pathway. So the project process, as we go through the process, we're really kind of kicking off the conceptual design phase. We're developing concepts. We'll go through this public process. There'll be three public touchpoints tonight where we're listening, where we'll be back in front of you in a couple of months to talk about the concepts we're developing, and then ultimately we'll develop a final concept, and then we'll move that into conceptual plans. Following the phase A, which is project definition, we'll complete that in the November timeframe, then our team will move into the design phase. Design will go from November of this year to about June of 2024, and then construction is anticipated in 2025 and 2026. So the steps that we're going to follow, and this is really the public process, so the steps we're going to follow for the concept design, really it's about the public engagement. And so we're starting that public engagement now. We're meeting with stakeholders. This is our first public workshop tonight, and our initial concept brainstorming comes out of that. We then take all of that information, we synthesize it down, we develop our concepts, and then we're back in front of the public, back in front of the stakeholders for the second round. The same engagement. We'll have another workshop here. It'll be advertised, and we encourage you to come and participate with that. At that workshop, we'll present three concepts for consideration and really want to know the the public's, the stakeholders input into those, what do you like about it, what don't you like about it, mixing and matching from the concepts. We'll then, after that feedback, we'll then synthesize that information again down, and we'll develop a single concept, and we'll get into some more detailed conceptual design, and then come back in front of the public for a third round, reporting back, getting any final input, any final adjustments to the concept before it goes in front of the City Council for their vote and approval, and before our team then moves into conceptual design. The project does have a budget, a total budget of about $14.55 million. A large portion of that comes from an FHWA raise grant, it's about $9.7 million, and then local funding sources. Part of that is TIF district funding, which there will be a vote on that. That was a couple of slides ago. So just want to flip through a couple of very quick existing conditions photos. We took these the end of last week, and so these are these are present day photos, and if you can imagine what we were talking about related to the alignment, here's our ramp, so here's the location of our pathway, our bridge would be in this area, and then again pathway up on the other side. Another view of the bridge location, a view of where the pathway would be on the east side of the interstate, a view of where the pathway would be on the west side of the interstate. This is looking south, so the bridge would be here, pathway here, pathway here, again looking south and looking south. So I'm going to have Eddie come back up, I'm going to have Don come up as well. They've got some example photos they want to go through. Eddie will explain some of the bridge photos, and Don will explain some of the pathway and retaining wall photos. The photos that you're going to see are most of them are printed out, so as we go to the breakout sessions you will be able to see them there, so this will be a quick run through and then if there's something you like you can look at it in greater detail. Hi, so basically as part of the design tool we usually compile these pictures and they can be random and the idea is to look at all these other bridges or other elements all over the world and to just give us an inspiration or something to aspire to or just to tickle our creativity and thinking is this what we want for our bridge or our pathways. So this is a bridge that we thought was really interesting. I don't know all the bridges that I use here, but this is in Vancouver, Washington, and it's basically a pass-through, but instead of the regular bridge you know straightforward that you usually see, this one incorporate landscaping, so when you're going through it you feel almost like not over a highway and we thought that that might be something that is so different that might be an interesting idea. And this is a new bridge in Providence, Rhode Island. It used to be a highway overpass. They kept the foundation and then that was the requirement and then figured out a way that make this a bicycle and pedestrian. And what was really interesting here again is like not just a regular bridge but trying to make it steps. There's even area that is more like a stage and so you know when we're thinking about bridge let's not, what do you call that, let's not limit ourselves to like the traditional thing. Just let's explode and think of other ways. Next. Yes, here it shows that lighting is so important to be designed so it's not just you know throwing light willy-nilly but trying to make sure it's integrated and is mindfully designed so it still feels safe and but yet it really what do you call that showcase the bridge itself. Next. I should do it this faster. This is in Austin, Texas again it's like interesting because you know it's you know they expand it in the middle so then it's like a nice place for people to look over. Granted you might not want to look over the highway but still the idea of having you know not just the same width might be an interesting notion next. Yes this is another view next. So this series is an interesting one and we were just thinking about you know it is over the highway so you might not want it to be transparent and so what are the different ways that you might treat the side that makes you feel more safe you know more enclosed without being caged in. Next. And here of course it's we might I don't know if we can do this for this bridge but the idea of having a coverage maybe it's not a full coverage just just some area of respite might be an interesting notion. Again here it's just about you know what we call it secondary elements but it's actually just railing signage and all this stuff it would be really nice to to think about it. And here is another notion this is again from the Providence you know you we can have a very simple bridge but maybe we can use cladding to make it like interesting and kind of iconic next or how to do the railing next which is very fast now or make it a very interesting incorporating art into the bridge itself. Thank goodness we're going to have an artist work with us and here what I love about this is also you know you have a railing but then you integrate into the railing a story about the bridge or a story about the area and and it's not something that is just an add-on. Again we love this because of how the lighting is incorporated and it creates this area of activity or area of respite. And so here is another idea that maybe we don't want it again to be transparent but there's still some transparency but this might be something might be an interesting idea for a bridge over the highway. Again this is incorporating art into into the structure itself so the art is not an add-on more something that is functional but beautiful. And in here I thought it's an interesting idea there's this bridge it's going to be quite high and we don't want to make it go down really fast so it has to be very what you call gradual and how do we come up with something that's still be functional still maneuver the different elevation but it used the lighting the art component the transparency so you feel safe you feel special all of this is something that we hope we can do and deliver for you thank you. So we've seen some interesting examples of what you can do with the bridge but you need to have paths to get up to the bridge and one of the things I'd like to do quickly is go through a couple of examples of some of the different ways that we'll be dealing with the different design issues we have in this case you know the sense of enclosure that Eddie was talking about on the bridge itself this can continue along the path maybe we want to create a barrier on the highway side and then the width of the path you know this is a good example of a path that's wide enough for both bicycles and pedestrians you can have two-way traffic and there's room to pass as well and we want to make this pathway welcome to everyone and as our population is aging that's going to include people who may have some mobility issues and may need to stop and rest fairly frequently so we want to make sure we have amenities like benches and other stopping resting places for folks and the bridge is going to be 20 feet or so over the over the highway how do you get up and down you know when you're heading back to route two it's probably going to be a fairly straight shot but if you want to make connections say to university mall or quarry hill you know we want to we may we may end up doing some switchbacks which is an example here or other means this is some of the issues we're going to be looking at would love to get to your folks opinions on those and of course we want this to be a year-round facility and part of the design issues is going to be can we find places to put plowed snow and make sure that it can be clear all the time 24 365 days a year and then there may be the need for retaining walls along some of the pathways there are a huge variety of materials and techniques that we can use for this is just one example here the nice thing about retaining walls is some of the ones that we can we can build and design the components allow us to put vegetation on them as well so it can be a green wall to sort of match that existing green spaces out there today so we're gonna we're gonna break into the breakout sessions and this is really where we really we really want to hear your feedback your thoughts your ideas did everybody get a little slip of paper most most so i think we're doing three breakout sessions and they'll be back in the community center where we had the food and there's there's one for bridge focus there's one for pathway focus and then there's a third group for project sustainability environmental concerns or other areas of interest and we're going to do about 20 minutes and then we're going to rotate and i'll just say if if you are really into like for example talking about the bridge you're more than welcome to just stay at the bridge table and continue to talk about the bridge you don't have to rotate but you're given the option to rotate to all three if you want to so with that i'll say let's let's break hey erin this is alan from vhp with the with a number of folks we have with joining virtually where are we going to be conducting the virtual breakout room we'll just do the one and we'll do it right here in this room yeah okay great thank you so that cctv captures it right got it that's what i thought so for the virtual folks i saw a message in the chat great question if we're going to form a breakout we've got the right number of people here virtually um to kind of just keep ourselves together so no breakout room necessary uh so uh you guys can all just sit tight and we're actually going to form a breakout group on the fly right here so thanks alan did you hear that we're we're going to we're just a little setup here and we'll be ready to go in about three or four minutes okay great thank you thanks for everyone still here in case you didn't in case you missed it um go up just saw the message in the chat thank you chris just want to make sure you all saw that so sit tight uh now's a good time to refresh your water stretch your legs and we'll get started in just a moment also not a bad time if you left the windows rolled down in your car like i just did as we're getting a pretty significant storm rolling in right now once again all of our online folks bear with us for just a minute just deal with some little logistics things here at city hall well for all of our online and virtual folks um thanks so much for having your lines muted at the moment to prevent any background noise but of course once we start the breakouts as Aaron and team have mentioned earlier we really looking forward to getting your feedback so once the breakouts start please uh don't be shy um unmute yourself share your comments feedback reaction all those kinds of things so thank you hi alan this is matt um we've got our facilitators here setting up give us just a minute excellent thank you matt uh feel free if somebody wants to set up here at the podium as well we got space and power hey alan just confirming you can still see us here in the auditorium yes right now the camera is trained on looks like three people up at the front uh table and i can see just the bottom half of the screen that's what we want that's great perfect for the online folks this might be a good quick run through tutorials um i know we turn my video on so for those of you who didn't see me before i know we've all been on our fair share of zoom calls in the past two years and what seems like maybe 2 000 calls but depending on what version of uh of zoom you have uh down below in that tray of buttons there's a button that says reactions um if you click that open that's how you can also raise your hand but there's a couple other things too like um a checkbox for maybe i agree or a red x i don't agree thumbs up clapping waving so just want to point those out to you to perhaps consider using when we get into things or not but just want to make sure you all know that they're there alan we should be able to see our three esteemed presenters up here on the screen audio is live i believe if you're ready we're just about ready here we are ready all of our virtual folks are still with us and um i know it seems kind of weird to go from the main meeting into a breakout room with not having done anything but here we are so that's great and so uh with that i believe um we are ready for you all to kind of take the show and run with it and walk us through this breakout and uh solicit the feedback from our um from our esteemed uh citizens and residents all right um good evening my name is wane simons and i work for vhb um i retired from the agency of transportation about um 18 months ago and um now i'm working for vhb with the agency i spent a lot of years working on highway bridges that are straight and relatively boring so i'm pretty excited to be here tonight to imagine what a more interesting structure could be for this pedestrian bridge and i'm going to be facilitating um and i have two co-facilitators with me and i'm going to turn it over to jeff to introduce himself hi everybody uh my name is jeff baghianchi i'm also with vhb i'm a transportation engineer so i work on a lot of different uh roadway projects but also the pedestrian and bicycle projects across the state of vermont and uh echo wane's assignment for this exciting transportation project and i'll pass it over to seara i'm seara ford i am the third member here from vhb i am also a transportation engineer with jeff so work together with him on sidewalks bike paths we recently did the berlington bike path project so i'm super intrigued by all of the pedestrian and bicycle facilities so i'm really excited to see what this bridge will turn out to be in the future so so we have a really rough agenda we're going to spend approximately 20 minutes on three different areas in the breakout section we're going to do a 20 minute session on ideas about the bridge structure itself and then another 20 minutes on path ideas and discussion and then lastly we're going to do another 20 minutes on um environmental sustainability and i guess we're calling it other but if there are other aspects of the project that don't fit neatly into path or um bridge that folks would like to give us some input on that would be excellent um so but before we jump into those three topics i think i'm going to let jeff speak just for a minute on um the tools that we have for your input yeah that's that's right we're going to use a tool called mural tonight so this is a collaborative tool that we are sharing on our screen now so you should be able to see that uh when when we do this presentation but we're also going to post a link to this mural in the chat of the zoom meeting so that folks who uh feel so inclined can go follow this link go to a web browser and what you're going to be able to do is is see all the interactive collaboration that we're going to be doing in this meeting in real time and you can also do a little bit of uh collaborating yourself so if you have um some notes to share with what we're going to talk about if you have any um comments to add there's going to be a couple tools for you to do that um so you're still yeah you're you're sharing the screen right so on the left side of of the view here you're going to see a couple toolbars and i think the two we're going to point out tonight that are going to be the most useful uh there's a sticky note icon in the left there called text and this is where you can place a sticky note um so you can basically drag your thoughts if you get into a topic and you want to add something that you'd like to share with everybody here tonight you can place a sticky note and then and then type out your uh your comment this is totally the same way as if you were in the room with us and we had a big poster on the wall you can write your thoughts on a sticky note and stick it on the board that's what we've got for you here with the the mural and then the other tool is actually going to be more of a free-handed drawing tool where you can sketch in something if you are feeling uh artistically creative in this format to draw your draw your thoughts perhaps more than then type them out so feel free to use either of those tools and for those of you who feel intimidated by those tools uh totally understand we're here to help you get your thoughts out of your brain and onto this mural so feel free to unmute yourself say hello and try to tell us your thoughts and we can make the point to put it into the mural using those tools uh so don't be shy um feel free to collaborate with us best you can and uh so Sierra I saw you put the uh the link in the chat so folks on the call can it can click on that link it'll show up in a browser and you should be able to see this mural or you can just follow along with us uh in the zoom meeting and see what we're doing here so so before we jump in um do we have the ability to open the mics to see if anybody has any questions or initial thoughts that are sure um so everyone's most people are muted by default but you feel free to unmute your own microphone um Martin you raise your hand thanks so much for the decor and feel free to take yourself off of you Martin and uh and share your thought thank you uh first I want to say as a bike cyclist who does daily commutes I am so pleased to see this project mode moving forward and also Sierra hearing you work on the bike path thank you very much I do enjoy it almost every day of the week uh the one thing that strikes me is we're speaking about the burden that a path may present to the elderly as a bicyclist I know there's just the annoyance of having to go out of my way to cross the street instead of being allowed to simply cross it and with the current path design we are taking pedestrians on what I am estimating to be half a mile three quarters of a mile out of their way each way so that's a mile mile and a half round trip which you know is next to 30 minutes of walking or more these are just estimates on my part isn't it possible to find a path that is more direct that allows people who are self-powered to have the shorter path then force them to take the longer path while allowing cars to have the more direct path so for example could there be a way to elevate people from ground level near the staples plaza perhaps a couple of switchbacks to bring them to road level route to level cross the intersection and then again use a series of switchbacks to lower back to street level close to the shell station CVS store in that area rather than making them go all the way around so we you want to take that I would just say should we qualify that as a as a path comment and maybe we can sketch that into our mural of that that alignment that she suggested thank you so so Martin thank you for the comment and we're we're being purposely aloof tonight in terms of responding to technical questions which is we're basically taking the feedback and we'll bring it back to the design team to definitely consider that and and we're we're purposely not answering in a technical way tonight so so please don't think that our that our aloofness means that we're not interested in the comment because we absolutely are and and I think that you will be heard on that comment so actually I think it does is there anybody else that has any initial thoughts that they'd like to share what we saw Chris raise their hand just before we let Chris speak I just want to point out one thing we did have one telephone person dial in and person on the telephone thanks for joining us if you want to raise your hand you can do so with your telephone that's star nine that's going to give you the same ability to raise your hand like everyone else and star nine lowers it so just if you want to speak out just let us know or just take yourself off mute with that Chris please share your comment or thought with us thanks very much I will echo the what I just heard shared and I put a little post it down there coming I'm a bike commuter as well and I man I wouldn't do what is being proposed I would just bike along the same route right across the interstate the way that it's proposed so thinking about is there possibilities of having access at you mall or whatever is directly across so somebody can just do the little short jump over and I dropped in there a link to a bike elevator in Madison Wisconsin as one option of if it is getting up to a higher level there's just a video from that elevator at the Manona Terrace as an example I have lots of other ideas but I can I will let other people share before I jump in with 18 ideas all right well thank you so I think that you know we've kind of jumped into some good discussion about the path and I'm going to just I guess call an audible and say let's um continue with the conversation um on path ideas and you know I think some of the leading questions that we had um were really about you know what qualities or characteristics do you um are you interested in um you know what what is it that you'd like to experience on the path and and I think we've heard from Martin that you know he's his experience is more of a transportation and you know and to get from one place to the other um and it and it also sounds like um I'm sorry I I've lost the name of the second Chris sorry Chris um is also a commuter um are there any other um thoughts on how you might use the path or or what would make you enjoy the experience of the path more uh I'm a walker can you hear me yes yes okay I'm I'm a walker um and I walk for distance so it doesn't bother me as much but actually it occurred to me as I watched this evolve that um I would probably continue to um walk on Williston Road because my experience is that um cyclists don't always pay attention to pedestrians the way we might like them to um so I think in that if if it's going to be a really useful bridge and some of the pictures really made it look like it could be um we need to make sure that it's that it's very clear that the cyclists have a really good path that they can ride but that there is also a place for the pedestrians to feel safe I was walking tonight um and two cyclists rode by really fast and if they had said on your left I would have been fine but um I think we can build a bridge that that alleviates the necessity to educate people about saying on your left you capturing that one Sarah yeah okay very good comment thank you yes we kind of have a format here of uh you know three three different kind of topics to discuss I'm glad we jumped right into this because the kind of unique thing about this online group is we're not going to do the rotation that the other groups are doing tonight so they're all sitting in uh distinct tables to talk about bridge and path and environmental and I think this is actually a nice format we can absolutely let the conversation go where it wants to go so if everyone has any other thoughts as we go don't feel bound by by the structure we really just want your thoughts when you when you're feeling them great looks like a couple hands yeah I was just gonna say Dan uh and Martin again again I put in the chat but if you guys want to turn your video on um some of us have our videos on I know I'm not in the room with you but hey look I'll break the ice to make us all feel warm and cozy go ahead Dan the floor is yours if you want to share your comment thanks dark my son's just going to sleep um thanks for hosting this meeting I appreciate it I just jumped down about 10 minutes ago I um live in Burlington and I'm one of probably single digit percentage people who actually ride directly on Williston when I need to get to south Burlington um but just looking at the design in the middle I echo what was already said that adding that distance is um bowing down to just this huge waste of land and space that is car centric infrastructure and that if somebody like me wants to ride it they'll just ride it and then adding if it's a round trip that much distance it's just um I just think it's a poor design and it should be a direct route um so that pedestrians and cyclists uh can get to where they need to go in a in a direct manner and not have to sacrifice time and everything else um to feel safe um so a direct protected physical infrastructure uh is what I would look for so that's my comment and thanks for hosting this meeting thank you and Martin yes I was going to comment on aesthetics uh since that was raised as an issue the Williston Road crossing right now is not particularly aesthetically appealing I think almost any alternative will be the equal or an improvement uh in terms of the designs that we've shown uh this is Vermont uh uh and uh verdant in our name implies green so I like the green wall quite a bit uh the art was fun but uh I think after two or three times over the bridge I would stop seeing it so I don't know if I would be highly invested in that type of decoration of the bridge itself a pedestrian who's on the bridge longer might feel differently uh but again uh to echo what I said earlier and what two other cyclists have now repeated uh we would probably just ignore the um the what I'll call the bypass and stay on the Williston Road because it just takes us so far out of the way so um I don't want to put words in your in your mouth Martin but I think what I'm hearing you say is is that um you value the the material choices um and some of the aesthetics of the bridge or path including green more than the art or like um decorations per se that are added to the bridge does that capture your thought yes okay great thank you sounds like we have um definitely a lot of feedback on the route of the path but if we could try to um focus a little also on what I mean what you just alluded to Martin the aesthetics of the path are like what you guys want to see out of um the materials that are used or what what would make you happy to ride over it if it is for pleasure maybe or um if you if it is if it did have to be on this alignment what would you prefer it to be like um and if you were going to spend the time to cross over it is there any anything that comes to mind that you'd like to see I like the I like the space that was sort of a an arborist's dream and with some trees and things that things that look like Vermont as opposed to the art let's have let's have things that are more natural and sort of part of who we are yeah I agree I think trees would be great I put a posted up saying I don't think it should be solid walls because it's too easy to add graffiti so if there is going to be walls something something not spray paintable but the trees would be something like that anybody else want to jump in with some thoughts on the materials sierra if your screen's controlled do you want to pan over to some of the example images that we looked at before up on the left I believe yeah I can see my mouse flowing around there yeah so there's some there's some great photos sierra to kind of ponder I think from different other bridge examples and would love to hear some reactions on some of the things we like we heard some great feedback on a lot of the green and the greenery and and that dislike for the the wall for graffiti purposes I think the lights on one of them those low level lights I think it's really important to have a well lit path for those who are commuting at night for safety as well as being able to see pedestrians dogs bikes whatever happens to be out there so chris you were you were suggesting that you like the lights that are brighter as opposed to those that might be lower level and more decorative well I like them to be low right I don't want them to pollute the night sky but but having it be so you can see what you're doing and be able to see like if you're um kennedy right now at night you can't see anybody and um depending on how you're riding uh like on spear street if you're going to the to south brollington at night you have the the people's traffic headlights in your light in your face so it's hard to see what's coming at you so depending on how it's actually being positioned and what kind of buffer there is between traffic you want people to be able to see what's happening on the path so if the path isn't lit that can be hard if there's cars coming at you which I guess there would be the way that it's being proposed because they'd be coming up the ramp on depending which way you're going I guess yeah depending on which way you're going you could be in the direction or the opposite direction of vehicles yeah that's a good point about lighting anybody want to chime in on one of the prompt questions here I think is a good one uh other bridges that you've seen that are memorable to you we love example bridges at this stage in the design and I would love to anybody has any experiences that they've uh had that they'd like to share for inspiration sorry um I had my hand raised but I think I don't know how to do it made the typical zoom mistake uh my name is Christine Ford I'm a transportation planner with the chitin county regional planning commission and I worked on the original scoping study that was done for this project and um I mean I think regarding design like the hope would be that it could be something that would be a draw in itself like it would be a a place where people would want to go and um certainly when we did the other study the issues of the the route um were definitely we had a lot of conversation about that and and moving away from route two but you know one is potentially an opportunity to get into the mall and perhaps across to market street so that would kind of you know alleviate that issue of just coming from route two and going back to route two but having some other destinations as well um and just for people I mean that it's very difficult to cross the the Wilson the the route two bridge and all the ramps and uncontrolled movement so I think you know some people are just not going to do that so it's it's not going to be the solution for everybody but I think for some people and potentially going to the mall going you know other locations um but yeah so something I'm not a designer but I think um I love these designs I think something attractive would be really awesome thank you Christine good to see you again like Martin's hand is up again oh yeah and I apologize I don't mean to hog the microphone but a couple of comments uh from I'm from New York City originally uh and going up to the George Washington bridge and over the Hudson River back down uh into Fort Lee New Jersey uh was a relatively direct route would have been very annoying if I had to go all the way downtown to cross the Hudson and then go back up again so uh you know if I were going to the mall maybe having a an off ramp to the mall would be great but I'm commuting I'm going on Williston Avenue to get from point A to point B I'm not necessarily going to the mall and I think that's probably true of the other commuters who have spoken uh and to a large number of the cyclists our destination it's not the mall so all having an off ramp to the mall might be convenient uh having it a forced destination isn't inconvenience um uh how can I say this I really like the idea of a beautifully designed bridge there's the wooden uh pedestrian bridge that goes over route 127 um in Burlington near the route 127 bike path I don't know if people are familiar with that and there's also a bicycle slash pedestrian bridge that's not as attractive but essentially it's a suspension bridge with the towers uh leaning inward uh also crossing route 127 uh that bike path since it goes through wooded area next to the Ethan Allen Homestead is very attractive and both of those bridges but especially the wooden bridge are physically attractive you know I would design this as much for durability and low maintenance cost as I would for aesthetics so I think you've heard from a couple of us that we appreciate the greenness of Vermont and natural appointments to decorate the path but we're less concerned about some of the aesthetics the other materials or decorations on the bridge yeah thank you for that point I think you know that that the durability comment really kind of lands in the sustainability bucket because in one sense it is um trying to build a bridge that's sustainable for the community to to maintain so I think that's a a point that fits neatly into that bucket um any other thoughts on um have you traveled somewhere and and uh you don't have to limit yourself just to the bridges that we have pictures of if you've traveled somewhere and you really enjoyed a bridge or you thought um that it would be neat to have something like that we'd love to hear those examples as well Dan I'll I'll chime in again yeah thanks um I think what matters to me is what happens I'm not sure of the plan but what happens on the west side and the east side hopefully it'll go straight and stay with route two and not do this big dip to the south but where how you'll get on this and where it'll dump you off because it don't it dumps you off in on the six lane road or a four lane road or there's a slip lane and it's just you know you get the bike lane ends sign and then you're just kind of screwed um actually connecting it to stuff really really matters um I was just wondering if you thought about that um I think that's definitely something that that we do need to carefully consider in the design and I think that's really good feedback um for the path um where it where it begins and terminates is going to be key so um thank you for that comment okay thank you I will echo that and I just put a post it to that effect the worst place here is actually just west of this whole thing there is no bike path you're on a dotted line if you want to go straight into Burlington you're all doing great job there's some really great feedback on this mural right now so um you know we we can come back to um either the path or the bridge um and we did have one comment on sustainability and environmental um let's let's jump to that that bucket for for just a moment and and uh here if uh you know any of you have any ideas or or thoughts on sustainability um the environment um social concerns economic concerns um or any other that that maybe you uh you're thinking about at this time so I put a post it in there about solar and and not using salt uh it's particularly if it's going to be a vegetated pathway and if it can have solar maybe it can a be covered so it's not so snowed upon and it could also solar could be used to heat the path instead of salt it yeah interesting heat it instead of salted and then you'd actually suggest the panels would be installed over the path or at least partially over the path um yeah sure why not yeah I like that a lot yeah I'll chime in I think that's a brilliant idea Chris thank you and also to charge batteries to power the lights overnight um you know environmental justice issues are significant but I think that area is already so commercial there's not much harm that will be done by this bridge if I'm wrong about that someone should speak up and correct me to the extent that we can use low carbon materials low carbon concrete um or or avoid petro-derived materials like asphalt that would be great you know I talked about the wooden bridge that's over route 127 so there we're using a natural material um but again maintenance costs need to be considered as well as maintenance materials it's not just the impacts of the initial material that need to be considered that's a really really good points um all right I'm looking I don't see any other hands up anybody anybody else have any thoughts on on this the other thing I'm thinking about so there's the new market street in south brillington and there's a low income housing there uh so if somebody was without a vehicle this path could be a mechanism for them to get to a job in burlington or something like that so if there's an alternative if there could be something from market street straight across to if it has to be down there that could be a mechanism to make a commute that is a walking commute for somebody or a biking commute from that low income area more doable yeah a really good point so just to comment that they're actually as I'm sure you know our bike lanes along dorset street so there is the potential to tie into those directly from an overpass uh of course there are not bike lanes along well actually there are some bike lanes along that section of williston road also though I guess we're trying to avoid using those for this project we're trying to create alternatives to them uh but there's also no bike lane on williston road east of essentially the shell station east of dorset street a question I have is in burlington uh the sidewalks are plowed by the city are those dorset street bike paths and sidewalks plowed by south burlington um we're getting a yes on that because I didn't know the answer but alana gave me gave us the thumbs up that that's a yes great so this will will be cleared uh when it snows that's good to know yes just want to call out that dan has the other hand raised also again thanks yeah thanks for allowing us to speak so many times um I'm here again uh from a social justice and social sustainability standpoint um I don't know if the green ride the bike share stuff is this far in south burlington or not but if we can get docks at places where people actually want to go um like on dorset street or the mall or um basically on both sides that you could use it to actually commute to a job or to get to like the doctor um that would be fantastic and again I think it kind of hinges on if this is a piece and it later has to be connected with physically protected infrastructure on the west and east side that I don't know how many people will use it at first but if there's bike share there maybe some more people will use it and then and then kind of connecting the dots after that I guess but but bike share stations is my suggestion so thanks yeah the bike share stations at the mall don't seem to be in a place where people would necessarily use them but maybe I'm wrong somebody must have data about that I think that's a really cool idea maybe a satellite office of local motion could be set up over there too so um I'm not calling out anybody but you know who you are there are some people that have have been on for the whole meeting and haven't commented on on anything and you know that's okay we're not shaming anybody here but at the same time we'd be we'd love for you even if you don't turn on your camera to jump in with any of the thoughts that you might have on on any of the three topics it's uh Tim Riley here um I think that from the view of bicyclists and that we really have wanted to um not have any you know an off rent to the new mall area there um I think the city is planning the new mall folks are planning some extensive renovations there and to be able to have a convenience for the folks that live in the new you know housing to the west of 89 to have easy access to the U mall um I think that's important and we can't overlook that and certainly with what our goals are for uh you know the market street being able to have convenient access of folks that you know do live just west of 89 to be able to have easy pedestrian access to uh to the U mall and to market street I think that's important we need I think it's important to keep that in mind as we design it all right thank you thank you Tim I just want I want to piggyback on something someone said a moment ago there was a message thrown into the chat I just want to make sure everyone saw it and reads it Christine Ford comments there are docks at healthy living in the mall so want to make sure everyone's aware and if for some reason you're in an environment where maybe you got a lot of background and you can't take yourself off mute as much as we'd love to hear you you can also throw your comments into chat or again um the mural board but um so lots of ways to provide feedback we want to get it any way that we can absolutely and and you know um I think the the comment about the docking stations is valid and I what I heard Dan say was it'd be good for us to look at where those would make sense so you know you know keep those ideas coming and uh you know I don't want to you know hopefully we're not intending to debate um any of the comments here tonight um we just want to keep gathering them so so please I invite anybody to to to talk about this and um you know Eddie kicked off this meeting and she said this is you know I guess I'm going to paraphrase this is about how you feel um and you know I think that we're starting to capture some of that that feeling but I guess you know the the idea of you know if this wasn't just strictly for commuting which I think we've really spent a lot of the time talking about it which is fine what would what would make you feel like you'd want to go there and spend time or what would make the experience of the bridge into our path um you know good for you or for your family any thoughts along those lines I would encourage everybody to reflect on your experiences in places where you've had those you know walking path you know comfortable spaces you enjoy what are the specific things that come to mind for you that you like about them and you know how can we gather that that experience here tonight I'll jump in again I guess um thanks for again having having us I think so like the Burlington Colchester bridge has those bump outs two bump outs where there's like a spot to like chill with your bike and look at the water it's all concrete um it's on the west side where the Winooski flows into Lake Champlain but if there are trees and benches like a kind of spot to actually hang out like a place like placemaking um because there's just so much asphalt um and hardscape there that if they're sort of a couple of refuges um from the rain and from the wind um or somebody you know if you choose to walk with a child in a stroller um a spot to relax and find shade um would make it a far more attractive walk and bike and more people will actually use it so and Dan were you alluding to you know in addition to the bump out like the experience would include like a natural surface like gravel or grass as opposed to like a concrete surface is that is that what you were yeah or even containers like containers with plants in them and stuff um like the two bump outs on the Burlington Colchester bridge is just concrete and like railing um and they're really small but if there's like a spot with a bench and you know some some green stuff then that would be attractive and enticing so I see Martin has his hand up but Dan I just want to like just just pick your pick on this thought just a little bit more are are you envisioning the bump out on the bridge itself um or are you thinking along the path or is it both I think um like if it's it's not just like a straight shot and then like it bumps out that much like on the bike ped bridge itself okay um I don't know if it's like a great view over the highway but it's still a spot to rest and sort of um catch your breath or sit down and drink some water or something good thank you okay thanks a term I've heard in the past was pause place is that okay is that reflective of the comment there like a place to pause during your ride yeah that I like that never heard of that I like that yeah I I have a question here um even though I'm here to kind of facilitate the meeting but like sometimes asking people what what they want um is helpful to get some thoughts but sometimes asking the inverse is really good too and so you've kind of alluded to the size of bump outs and things like that but thinking a little more broadly are there any experiences that you all that you don't want to see I think we we have kind of covered the length of the route before but maybe other from the aesthetic perspective anything that just would be a either an adamant showstopper or just something that's not preferred I think sometimes capturing those things are helpful as well so I'll I'll jump in I'm actually answering the question uh precedent to the one you just asked Alan uh the question triggered my thinking which bike paths do I really enjoy and uh for example I live near centennial field but I bicycle uh along spear street and down the swift street bike path to go shopping uh at the city market uh at the south end because those paths are tree lined uh you know the the forest is so dense going from um Farrell park to uh Saminsky park uh near the condos uh I can't think of what street it is there uh up near spear street the trees are so dense it is so natural it's almost magical and I really love that ride even though it's a lot closer I don't go to shop on dorset street because of the uh concrete uh uh pathway and the frankly uh almost terrifying need to cross the entry and exit ramps from 89 so having a lot of greenery really appeals to me and draws me to the path I also like the idea of resting places there are benches along the bike paths I just mentioned frankly I almost never stop at them but I could see where they would be uh an enticement especially to a pedestrian or an older individual who wanted to stop and just take in natural beauty and I think that's the key I'm hearing both from Dan and that I'll reiterate here uh there's something very calming uh and attractive without nature so to the extent that could be used in the design of the path I think would make it that much more enticing so I'm gonna I'm gonna ask a leading question along those lines if you were on the bridge or on the path um and you were imagining yourself there looking for an experience um and and given the location of where the path is and the bridge would you see yourself more focused on um the the activity and the experience on the path or on the bridge versus the experience looking off from the path let's say on over the interstate or a view from the bridge or the path it's hard if you ask a commuter that question because that's just gonna put people in our way um so and it also depends what the walls are like and what the edge is like and if there are trees and if you can't see anything you know you could put a scavenger hunt along there and you could have a whole bunch of gnomes along the way that people go see the 18 gnomes and and they're there for a tour of the gnomes um I don't think a bridge over a highway is probably a place that looks as nice as this place with the water here for people to pause and kind of look gaze over the tractor trailer trucks running underneath so um if somebody was going to have an experience I guess it's along the path and not along the bridge but again from the the commuter's perspective that just sounds annoying yeah I echo Chris's statement uh there's a difference between over looking Lake Champlain toward the Adirondacks on the bridge over the Manuski and what you're going to see from a bridge over I-89 though I guess if it's positioned right and high enough you might be able to see Mount Mansfield over to the east but it would be an obstructed view all right well we've heard a lot and we've tried to ask leading questions and and I think we're gonna you know start to wind this down we'll just give like a five minute notice and I think I'd just like just open it up for anybody that has any other thoughts um again we've got 20 minutes I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm told that we now we now have 20 minutes so okay all right so sorry I don't mean to rush anybody so but it the offer still stands for for folks to um offer any any other thoughts if a longer last point that you'd like to share and the brief one there are two good comments in the chat I'll take an opportunity to read them out um Corey asks can you consider ways to make cars not as loud and prominent in the places to stop along the path I'm presuming not an overall engineering study to reduce the decibel level of cars but maybe waste a buffer the sound but then Martin is quick to reply electric cars are coming Corey they should be quieter which I agree with but I think I think Corey's overall point is a good one in any ways to to buffer or somehow reduce the noise of the cars um from reaching pedestrians and bicyclists ears yep no I think that that is a good point yeah put that under the path category to reduce noise from vehicles it seems that I missed the earlier part of the meeting my name is Ryan Thornton um I don't know if you're taking comments on this issue but just the the route of the um bridge seems to me to be quite inconvenient I'm not sure exactly how this would play out but it looks like maybe we'd have to go downhill then back uphill to meet with Williston Road um I'd like a little bit of information on that um I understand it seems like you want to make this a pleasant experience for people on bicycles which I appreciate um but it seems to me the most pleasant would be just to let us go across the bridge safely as directly as possible um this this seems to me more recreational minded um which isn't really going to help us much with our commute share um I I understand I don't know all the details of this design and why this was chosen so but those are just my thoughts issue yeah um thank you Ryan and uh you know others have shared similar thoughts probably just before you jumped on um and and uh the the grade of the proposed path has not been um you know finalized at this point but your your initial thought is valid we we have to get to from essentially the the level of the street to an elevation that's great enough to get over the interstate um with enough clearance so there there is probably somewhere in the order of a 15 foot or so grade rise there how that's achieved at this point is uh you know still kind of up in the air there were some concepts that were thrown out earlier in in the meeting that had switched backs or or um other types of things that could work for both pedestrians and bicyclists and and we're taking comments on those types of amenities not really amenities but those types of facilities at this point so um you know with that we're we're also not really coming up with technical solutions tonight we're just hearing the input so we do appreciate that and uh we've grabbed it and and Jeff's put it on the board as a as a comment for the design team to consider so I don't know if that's you know um you know certainly there there are some scoping reports and other things out there that you could get more information on and uh if you want to give us your email we can make sure you get that information after the meeting so um yeah any other thoughts anything we haven't covered yet any ideas yeah thank you for for that information just as a follow-up um if I if I was going to go across the bridge here at the red line that I'm seeing um um would I be able to connect more directly with dorset street like is there going to be a some sort of shared youth path shared use path where I don't have to go back up to wilson road and go around just curious I'm gonna try to change the color of that line yeah yeah you get a red line and make sure we're talking about the right line let's do um okay but Ryan you were talking about the the heavy dashed line right for the proposed route if the bridge was where that line is shown you're asking if there's going to be any more direct connections onto dorset street right yeah just just some more options for connectivity so without without having um all of those answers right now I think your comment is that you would like opportunities for those connections as part of the project uh yeah if this is if this is the design as it has to be then as much connectivity as possible right okay thank you and I think that you know there's been some other comments that mirror that so I think that's a that's a theme that we have uncovered in our comments here so thank you just want to point out that Christine Ford dropped a great link into the chat I think probably based on her prior experience about how the alignment was arrived at so if anyone's got questions about the length of location and things like that that might be a good link to perhaps open in a browser tab and save for later so feel free to open up the chat and grab that while you can thank you Christine so I know we've talked about commuters definitely using route to as a way to get to and from work um and then we also briefly touched on people just having this path as a destination can we think of any other user groups that might want to use this path need to use this path I know there's a great point earlier about the low-income housing on market street maybe needing to get across and then the if we had um bike docks um I think that's a definitely a a huge point with this project is we're trying to to hit on a lot of different groups so um curious if anyone has any ideas on that I put one comment in about UVM students I think they could go do their grocery shopping if they could get across into the mall area from all those apartments on the west side there um I also think there's a housing shortage so if South Burlington were to build some more housing in this new market street neighborhood and Dorset Street that could also give people access again back to jobs downtown there's another question about who else yeah I think you maybe hit on this one Sierra like who are the groups that are not being here it is uh yeah what other potential users of the bridge not represented tonight should we be reaching out to I like that that problem just to get everyone thinking about other groups maybe didn't couldn't make it tonight and uh what are some thoughts in everyone's mind about you know who may be missing and who what their thoughts may be on this project I think Dan's got his hand up yeah thanks so another point too is maybe where it starts and ends is how it connects to a GMT stop a really safe GMT stop um so if you're connecting multimodally like that you can get off and maybe bike west um or even build it in such a way that it could be possible to put that in in the future um to connect non-car modes of transportation so just another idea to to connect those two modes good point so I see kids with their parents on market street every day um and I don't know where the Chamberlain school I think it's Chamberlain polls from but there could be kids who would go to school via said path if there are people on Spear Street that would go to that school or the high school for that matter is down in the middle school too or down Dorset Street very true five more minutes I suppose right yeah and I was I was just gonna jump in and say you know I don't know if anybody has any any questions um if you were here earlier um folks went over sort of the next steps um you know does everybody kind of know generally what we're what we're gonna be doing after tonight and and for the next few months as we develop three um concepts for the path and the bridge and then have another round of of uh public input like tonight is there any questions on on uh process or next steps I I have a kind of a meta level question um as a person here who's trying to facilitate the online portion because we wanted to try to make this as accessible as we could a virtual an in-person component in a virtual component um if there's any feedback you have about how well this is working to let us know or if you'd like to see certain changes for the virtual piece that might make your participation better please let us know because we'll do whatever we can for the next one um to to foster that that level of of of action and participation so um please throw it at us a couple thoughts I just had um one when the path is being built if the gravel can be put in enough underneath it that it doesn't end up all frost heaved in a short period of time and secondly uh this happens along doors at the trees basically can take a cyclist right off their bike because they're not they're too short and they aren't trimmed so if you're planting trees can you push them back a little bit from the path or come up with a maintenance plan that makes sure that they're trimmed high enough that a cyclist can get under them good points yeah trees get bigger you know um all right a couple more minutes any any parting thoughts all right if not then I think we're going to close out this um breakout session and then um you'll be put out and they're going back out into the general session which is going to start a few minutes everyone's going to stay right here because we actually didn't move people so we're just going to sit tight and we're going to wait for the people physically um in the room to rejoin everyone here so awesome yeah all right well thank you everybody for for joining us in the breakout session um again feel free to send the comments we'll we'll strive to do better next time if there's something that we can do better but really appreciate the interaction and I hope you all have a good evening thank you and one thing to note about this mural session this link is available to you guys you guys can continue adding to it if you didn't have time or your computer with you or something during this meeting where you couldn't add um we can take feedback all night um and I mean we are trying to produce some some concepts tomorrow as Erin alluded to in the presentation earlier so but we can always go back to this and I mean I'll be referencing it later to look at what people said so yeah please continue to uh collaborate I mean this link is never ending um I mean it won't expire but I don't know at what point we will stop looking for new sticky notes that were added is all how how will they be able to comment oh yeah yeah regardless of the technology we use the comments will still be open yeah right and this is Matt one more time from here in the auditorium we're going to be rejoined momentarily by the rest of our in-person folks before we do that I definitely want to thank everybody out there on the zoom side for rolling with us tonight we're definitely learning a bit as we go and we appreciate your patience and your creativity and your feedback and I think the one last thing we need to do is we need to hear a sign someone who was going to very quickly summarize this great discussion we had when we do get back together and have a quick recap so who's it going to be are you looking to one of us to do that recap I would think so yes uh what do you think Grain you want to do it or let me take a stab um I'm happy to have you do it or I can go ahead yeah uh when the crew comes back in yep yeah all right I'll take my stab and Wayne will correct me best of luck to you one more time thanks everybody out there we appreciate it and please stay tuned because not only will we share our discussion but we're also going to hear from the other in-person groups who met so we'll get some different perspectives on what went on out there in the hall Jeff just to let you know key to not getting selected to do the wrap-up is to turn your video off which is why I did that so quickly so just a just a pro tip for next time well done Alan wiser man than me now there was a lot of great feedback in this session happy to share it absolutely yeah this mural is littered with uh post-its and that's awesome yeah there's definitely some repeats but yeah we probably want to know why you and I were duplicating our efforts a little I knew that but I figured it would be better to okay double do it I think so I'm just saying was this mine this was mine right this was not yours yeah okay how this is mine I know it's here I told you it was my regret today not doing my water bottle around the rest of the shelf okay do we not stay up here to do that recap I can leave probably and I just got the word from Aaron that our folks will be coming back in within a minute or so if anybody needs to get a drink of water get up and stretch this is a great time to do that excellent thanks for the for that heads up Matt also just as something that pointed out a moment ago when we get mixed in with the with the folks that are there in person and they shared their feedback if you all have reactions or feedback to that feedback that's another great way because um you know if we were all in the same exact location that's what we what we would be doing so let's not let the the digital barrier keep us separated let's let's work together so feel free to raise your hand if you're hearing some comments that are maybe summarized in surface from the in-person ones that either resonate or maybe don't resonate throughout some comments or use the reactions or whatever let's just participate anyway that works for you so Thank you all for being here. Thank you. We're just about ready here. We're in the auditorium. One more time I want to thank all of our online folks for their patience. We'll people filter back in here from the in-person breakouts. Thanks for that update, Matt. Thanks for coming back in. I heard a lot of great discussion, a lot of great comments. I think some folks were questioning, can I say that? And this is the night to say it. Get it all out there. As I said, if you think of something after the fact, after you go home a couple of days and you're thinking about it, feel free to hop on the city's website. We'll get a link up there so that we can share out the virtual room. We'll share the PowerPoint presentation, the examples that we've got there, and there will be a place to add some more comments if you'd like. So very quickly, just want to have each of our designees from each of the groups just come up and give maybe like a 60-second high level. What were the main themes that we saw and heard? And just so everybody can get a little bit of a flavor from each of the groups. And let's start with Jeff. Jeff was part of the online, the virtual group. All right, I will do my best. We got a lot of feedback in the virtual room, and I know I'm not going to hit on all the points when I try to recap here, but I'll try to hit on the big ones. We've heard a lot of feedback just on the alignment of the bridge, some preferences for commuters to have a more direct route across the interstate rather than the southerly roundabout route that is shown. But we also heard a lot about some of the preferred materials that we'd want to see. So a lot of folks preferred some more natural-looking materials of the bridge. Vermont is a very green state and kind of having plants and more natural-looking features, but also keeping things durable and lower maintenance, not going for the durable rather than the overly pretty was a preference that we heard. So that was great. We heard some opinions about pause places, so places where people can pull over, take a break, enjoy the scenery. People had a lot of good thoughts on how to do that and some of the features that should be included with those pause places. And we heard a lot of comments about connectivity, so making sure that this bridge really connects with the U Mall and other neighborhoods of South Burlington. We heard about UVM students having a link across the interstate, some low-income housing areas in the area having good connectivity, having good bike-sharing locations for places that we could put docks that are more promoting good connectivity in the area. So that's probably more than 30 seconds. There was a lot of content. I was pretty impressed with everybody who participated online. And I think that's it. Great. Thanks, Jeff. Eddie, do you want to come up and share from your group? Well, thank you, everyone. That was so much fun. We got so many ideas. And I think what was really nice is that some of the ideas actually were contradicting each other, which is great because we are going to then explore both. But what kept coming back was we wanted to be safe. We wanted to be year-round, possibly for montage. And another one is modern, forward-thinking. Use the most cutting-edge technology. And art and lighting should be integrated. And there was a suggestion mainly from Tyler or a question. Should the bridge be the art object? Or should the art be part of the bridge? Everyone wants books. So that was really good. And how is the experience of the bridge? We want it to be green, but we want it to also be aesthetic. The bridge should be beautiful. It should be somewhat something that will stop you. It gives South Burlington an identity and putting it in the map. Awesome. So I'm sure I'm missing a lot, but it was so much fun. We have great ideas. We are going to digest all of these things. And hopefully we'll come back with something that is great and fun and fulfill a lot of the comments. Thank you. Great. Thanks, Eddie. Natanya? I probably should have said Jeff's group covered all three topics online. Eddie's group covered the bridge. And Natanya's group covers the pathway. Not my group. I was just the note taker. Still got the note in my hand. It's amazing. I'll take my mask off. It's amazing how many commonalities we see across the board. But in our group in particular, and this language is going to sound familiar. Now we're seeing connectivity coming up a lot. Naming of like, we don't want this to be isolated. Will there be lighting? Will there be multiple connections and on and off ramps? Things of that nature. A lot of attention towards the usability, practicality of the bridge. Things such as lighting and sound. What does it look like to engage on this bridge? And what does it look like to really make a name for South Burlington? Utilizing this pathway. So those were the main pieces that came up. Also just the functionality, both for pedestrians and walkers in utilizing this bridge in a way that makes sense. I love that so many people are like, why don't we move this all together? It was really cool to hear the broad range of pluralized options. Great. Thank you. Zariah, do you want to come up? And Zariah was part of the group that explored the project sustainability, environmental and other concerns. Although I think all groups kind of merged a lot of the topics. Yeah, I think we all merged. So on the sustainability group, we of course focused first on sustainable local and low maintenance materials and designs. Similar to other groups talked about this being a symbol of South Burlington and what that means in terms of having the focus be nature, greenery, sustainability, renewable energy, some of those things. And some preference for the first image that we saw in terms of bridges. We talked a lot about disengaging and disconnecting first from the highway. So both visually and in sound and then making a smart choice between either deliberately disconnecting from things like the back of the U mall or by enhancing some kind of connectivity to it, making a decision between those things. And then we talked a lot about bike paths and walkability as all the groups did. So thinking about going beyond the pathways we currently have proposed, which could mean both going further south than we're currently thinking about going or thinking about those busy intersections at the north of the project for safety and continuity or some of the key points. Awesome. Thank you so much. And we had one other group. Dan or Mike. Dan was part of a group that focused on the pathway. But again, yeah, a lot of the same key components. Connectivity obviously was a big component of our group's focus. You're not so much the connection between the two communities along Willis Road, but the connections between the neighborhoods. You know, the east west just south of that connection, it was really important. And if even if those connections can't be established as part of this overall project, making sure that the path alignment and infrastructure is there to accommodate future connections down the road. One other component that came up a lot was making sure there's adequate separation from the path from the interstate and making sure there's that noise and air pollution buffer between, you know, commuters on the interstate and the users of the bike path. Great. Thanks, Dan. So this is right towards the end of our night tonight. And just we really want to encourage everybody to stay involved as the project continues to take shape. There are a couple of different ways to stay involved. As I mentioned, the city's website will have updates on it and some links. And then there will be some follow up workshops. We're going to go to work starting tomorrow pulling together our ideas for the concepts. We'll be back in front of the public and the stakeholders for the project in a couple of months. And then again later in the year and then ultimately in front of the city council about the November timeframe to put forward the concept that comes from this process. So just want to open it up. I know everybody's talked quite a bit tonight and given a lot of input, but if there's any final questions, feel free to speak up now. And then if you want to, you know, take a few days and offer questions or if you have questions after you go home, feel free to get in touch with Alana. Her city email addresses on here and her phone number. She'll accept input either way. We'll just want to get that question restated because I think folks in the line couldn't hear it. If you're talking about sustainability and the permanence of the project, bike paths all too often fall apart after a few years. They get bumpy and between ice and tree roots because they didn't have a decent enough infrastructure and they weren't built with a long term in mind. So we only have a limited budget, but keep in mind that if it's just a layer of asphalt on the ground or minimal infrastructure, it's not going to last very long. And it won't be used very much. Absolutely. Okay. Well, thank you everybody for coming. We'll look forward to was was there a note? Okay. Thanks everybody for coming. We look forward to seeing you in a couple months. Thanks everyone.