BOSTON (AP) – Ground was broken Saturday for a project to upgrade athletic fields along the Charles River in memory of 14-year-old Edward “Teddy” Ebersol, who was killed in a plane crash last November.

The project, called Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields at Lederman Park, will replace existing fields at the park on the city’s Esplanade with new expanded fields suitable for baseball, softball, T-ball, soccer and other uses. The project is designed to improve drainage, landscaping and facilities at the fields, which are frequently used for pickup games.

The project is being developed by a nonprofit partnership between the Red Sox Foundation, Hill House and the Esplanade Association. Working with state officials, the partnership has raised more than $1.5 million of the $1.8 million needed to revitalize the fields.

Ebersol, a passionate Red Sox fan, was killed Nov. 28 when the plane he was traveling in crashed amid freezing temperatures, fog and snow. His father, NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol, and his 21-year-old brother, Charlie, were injured.

The accident also killed pilot Luis Alberto Polanco and flight attendant Warren Richardson III.

Among those attending Saturday’s groundbreaking were Teddy’s parents, Dick Ebersol and Susan Saint James, as well as Gov. Mitt Romney, Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner and representatives of Hill House and the Esplanade Association.

A formal dedication of the fields is planned next spring after the project’s completion.