The Town of Bridgewater has been tentatively awarded funds to construct the first phase of the Riverwalk project.The first phase would construct a path at Edgebriar Park, under the Main Street bridge and into Seven Bridges Park. Then a paved shared-use path would extend down to the bird sanctuary and another path would extend down to Bridgeview Park completing the 1000 foot section. The Riverwalk is a vision project, years in the making, that aims to build approximately a two mile path that connects seven small and separated waterfront parks. The Riverwalk would also make a safe and strategic connection for bicyclists and pedestrains traveling from one side of town to the other without having to cross Main Street.
The current Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP), a Federal-Aid Highway program, is a component of the federal transportation bill – Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, also known as MAP-21 signed in July 2012. TAP recieved some minor changes and updates during the signing of The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act on Dec. 4, 2015, as well as a new name the “Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside” program, but is still commonly known as TAP.
These set-aside funds include:
1) Most of the eligible activities from the Transportation Enhancement (TE) Program, now known as Transportation Alternatives (TA), which has ten qualifying TA sub-activities
2) Safe Routes to School Program (SRTS) activities
3) Recreational Trails Program activities and
4) Planning, designing, or constructing boulevards and other roadways largely in the right-of-way of former Interstate System routes or other divided highways
For more information on the TAP program or other projects around the state for fiscal year (FY) 2018 visit VDOT’s Local Assistance Division webpage. Or you can view the list of projects here.