Interpretive Panels Unveiled on the Burns Bridge

BETA proudly attended the dedication of the Kenneth F. Burns Memorial Bridge at Regatta Point Park in Worcester on November 1st, 2015. BETA, in conjunction with the Department of Transportation, has been working with the Shrewsbury Historical Commission to design eight 17-foot-long commemorative placards for the sides of the bridge, which brings Rte. 9 over Lake Quinsigamond.

The following are excerpts from news publications following the dedication ceremony:

“The brightly-colored signs are modeled to look like competitive crew rowing boats, in honor of the lake’s most popular sport.

Most of the photos to be featured come from the personal collection of Michael Perna of the Shrewsbury Historical Commisson. Perna has been a collector of local history for 40 years and has written several books on the subject, including “Shrewsbury Through Time” and “Remembering Lake Quinsigamond.” He also writes a regular Shrewsbury history column for the Shrewsbury Chronicle.

‘When we started this project I sat down [with the Shrewsbury Historical Commission] and I brought in a bunch of photos and we knocked them around a little bit,” said Perna. “We chose ones we felt were representative of each subject. The hard part was squeezing so many topics into a limited amount of space.'”
– Bonnie Adams, Community Advocate (read full article here)

“There are seats for people to view Lake Quinsigamond and the intersections in the area were reconfigured for traffic. Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack said the arches were also created in a certain way to allow for proper race lanes for rowing events on the lake.

Pollack credited the contractors, the Middlesex Corp., for their work on the bridge. The company also paid for the night’s fireworks display.

‘Every detail of this bridge is the way it is because we heard from people what is important to them,” Pollack said. “We didn’t just take a 100-year-old bridge and rebuild it the way it was, we built it for the next 100 years.'”

– Scott Croteau, MassLive.com (read full article here)