The Access for All group provided the following information about this week's important events:

On Tuesday, March 23rd, ODOT (the Ohio Department of Transportation) will announce the three finalist Design-Build Teams (DBTs), who will each be paid $1 million to prepare, by August 5th, 30% complete design plans for the bridge. Regardless of the winner, any of the designs can be incorporated into the final spec.

ODOT has been asked to simply add an "addendum" to their instructions to the DBT's allowing them to design accommodations for cyclists and pedestrians on the bridge as all federally-funded road projects are required to give reasonable consideration to cyclist and pedestrians' needs.

Mounting popular and political pressure make it likely that bike/ped access will eventually be included, but Design Build Teams can show responsible stewardship of taxpayer's money by designing it now, as citizens demand, whether ODOT includes it as an addendum or not. This tactic will preclude the need for such a facility to be added in the later, less-flexible, contractor design process.

Strong popular support is needed now to show ODOT, our political leaders, and the press that this issue is not going away. More than 30 other cities in the U.S. have preserved space for nonmotorized users on interstate freeway bridges! Yet despite years of proper, official public comment; reasonable and professional design suggestions; and several recent months of advocates' hard work in the press and with politicians, ODOT continues to say ‘No’. Adding an exceptional showing of public enthusiasm, and Council's formal support, to that of the Cleveland Planning Commission, Governor Strickland, Senator Sherrod Brown, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the Plain Dealer, and scores of local businesses and civic organizations—and doing so before the DBTs begin their design work—may be the last best chance to make this good idea a reality without the risk of delaying the much-needed replacement of this bridge. Elsewhere, bike/ped access has been added to similar projects after the 90% design stage. ODOT should not wait that long.

There will be public "involvement" meetings during the design-build process about minor aesthetic design features, but this is the last, best, chance for the public to speak up forcefully in support of equal access for all citizens to this $450 million bridge that we all are paying for. This should be a bridge for all—for people in cars, trucks and busses; but also for those who don't own a car, who choose not to drive everywhere, or who just want to walk or bike between Tremont and Downtown for their health, for the great view, or for a change.