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News Briefs: Free Bluebikes Sundays, Southwest Corridor Path Work Resumes

12:11 PM EDT on May 5, 2023

Workers in fluorescent yellow vests wrangle equipment behind a pickup truck parked on a bike path in a park surrounded by budding trees. In the foreground row of three cones, the middle of which bears a "road closed" sign, blocks access to the trail where they are working. Next to the cones is a vertical concrete bollard with a sign. The top of the sign reads "dcr" with a leaf logo; below that, "Southwest Corridor Park," below that, an arrow pointing to the upper left just above a pedestrian walking icon, pointing to a narrower walking path to the left of the sign; below that, an arrow pointing to the upper right just above a bike icon points to the bike path.

Workers repairing the asphalt surface of the Southwest Corridor Park near Ruggles in early May 2023. Photo courtesy of the Mass. DCR.

Free Bluebikes passes every Sunday for Mental Health Awareness Month

For the next four Sundays, the lead sponsor of the Bluebikes system, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, is giving away free Bluebikes rides in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month and National Bike Month.

To take advantage, Bluebikes users will need to open the Bluebikes App and select the two-hour “Adventure Pass." Users will be able to claim unlimited passes on Sundays this month. 

The promotion will also include a free ride code to give to a friend, and the ten riders who log the most miles on Bluebikes in May will win a year-long Bluebikes membership.

Southwest Corridor paving work resumes

After a long hiatus, work is resuming on repairing pavement on the Southwest Corridor bike path between the South End, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain.

A small patch of fresh asphalt on a bike path running through the dappled shade of trees in the Southwest Corridor park
In the days leading up to the Orange Line closure, the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) rushed to repair broken sections of pavement on the Southwest Corridor paths with fresh asphalt. DCR will return this spring to make more permanent repairs by milling and repaving the most damaged sections. Photo by Grecia White.

As we reported here last September, this work was supposed to be done last fall, after repair work done for the Orange Line shutdown left behind bumpy patches of new asphalt along the popular bike trail (see photo at left). But the contractors that were hired for the project were reportedly unavailable to actually do the work before winter began.

According to the Department of Conservation and Recreation, work resuming this week (pictured above) will remove broken patches of asphalt, repaving, and intersection improvements, including the removal of deteriorating cobblestone pavers in locations where the path crosses city streets and sidewalks.

Path users should be prepared to detour around work crews, either onto parallel paths in the Southwest Corridor, or adjacent streets and sidewalks.

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